Done With Brackets

      This time of year is referred to as March Madness. It is the start of the men's  NCAA basketball championships. A group of teams make it to the playoffs and the teams are whittled down to the two best that play each other in the championship game. The teams are organized into four regions for the playoffs. Many people like to try and predict who will win the various games. This is called picking a bracket. Sometimes groups of people will compete against each other to see who picked the most number of winning teams. The winners sometimes win money or get bragging rights.
   I got starting picking brackets when I was working with Scott. Scott was my boss and a big college basketball fan. It was fun to see which one of us would come out ahead in bracket picking. After I left that job, I continued to pick brackets every year.  It was fun.
  The problem is that most of the time my choices would lose. I know this because of the "On This Day" program on Facebook. The last few days have featured past posts complaining of teams losing and brackets falling apart. Obviously, I'm not very good at this.
  Most of the time, the vast majority of my teams make it into the "Sweet 16". These are 16 teams that play against each other to advance to the "Elite Eight" then to the "Final Four". Two winners of the Final Four emerge to play each other in the championship game.
  This year only seven of the teams that I picked to be in the Sweet 16 are still in the playoffs.  Four of my Elite Eight choices are still alive. Half of my Final Four and Championship game choices have been eliminated. Pathetic.
  Some of this is not my fault. The teams are seeded which means they are ranked according to how good the experts think the team is. The highest seed is one, which indicates a really good team, the lowest is 16. In the first round, the number one seeds play the 16 seeds. The number ones win and advance. That is until this tournament. For this first time in men's NCAA basketball history, a 16 has won. Maryland- Baltimore County seeded 16 beat number one ranked Virginia by a score of 74 to 54, a huge upset. No one could have predicted that. Xavier a number one seed with a lot of playoff experience got knocked off by Florida State, seeded nine. I'm not sure too many saw that one coming either.
  I caught myself yelling at the TV set when Gonzaga was playing. I like Gonzaga and it looked like they were about to fall to Ohio State. They didn't thankfully, but it showed me that I was seriously over-involved. Time to stop the bracket picking.
  With no bracket to worry about, I can enjoy the games more. I can root for the underdogs and not get upset when they lose. I can root for the high seeded teams that advance without being aggravated at how they are ruining my bracket. I won't feel the need to check scores on tournament weekends.
   As a bonus, my Facebook friends will not have to listen to me grouse about my ruined bracket. Everyone wins! Since my brackets are gone I'm not going to worry about the rest of the  games..... Unless Villanova loses...... (I have them picked to win the championship.)