2008 Woodie Awards
Heed the seed - get your bracket on
Julie Lord
Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: Opinion
It's March again, and the madness is about to begin: College basketball fans are building their brackets and perfecting their trash talk. With the growing popularity of Facebook brackets - which will result in a $10,000 prize for one lucky user - even people who don't give a fig about college basketball are suddenly acting like experts.
Personally, I fit well into that category. Though I don't pay much attention to sports unless the Cubs are playing, I get a little excited around this time of year. Why? Because you don't have to be a sports statistician or super-fan to pick a winning team during March Madness. Even experts will tell you it's anyone's game - the tournament routinely features huge upsets, surprise front-runners and Cinderella stories.
Over the past few years, I have gathered enough information about the NCAA tournament to compose a sort of "March Madness for dummies," though it is by no means reserved for "dummies." If you, like me, want to join in the fun of friendly competition without having to watch a single minute of "SportsCenter," this is the guide for you.
First, you'll want to know a bit of the terminology. At the beginning stages, everyone seems very concerned with "seeds." I'm convinced this is just an attempt to confuse non-sports fans, because "seed" is just another word for ranking. Within each region, a team can be rated 1 through 16. A No. 1 seed will probably do very well and begins the tournament by playing a very low seed as a sort of reward for playing a strong season. The competition is "single elimination," which means a team is out of the tournament when it loses once.
You should know the cute nicknames for the levels of the tournament: Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four. The Sweet Sixteen will be the top four from each of the four regions, the Elite Eight will be the top two from each region and the Final Four will be the top team in each region at the end of the tournament.
Next, you need to create your bracket. You can probably bank on the top "seeds" getting pretty far, but make sure to build in some upsets. If you want to do it the sports-fan way, you can compare teams' records to predict the winners: Of course, this is quite boring. I prefer alternative methods. Coin flipping and the old "close your eyes and point" are favorites.
Personally, I fit well into that category. Though I don't pay much attention to sports unless the Cubs are playing, I get a little excited around this time of year. Why? Because you don't have to be a sports statistician or super-fan to pick a winning team during March Madness. Even experts will tell you it's anyone's game - the tournament routinely features huge upsets, surprise front-runners and Cinderella stories.
Over the past few years, I have gathered enough information about the NCAA tournament to compose a sort of "March Madness for dummies," though it is by no means reserved for "dummies." If you, like me, want to join in the fun of friendly competition without having to watch a single minute of "SportsCenter," this is the guide for you.
First, you'll want to know a bit of the terminology. At the beginning stages, everyone seems very concerned with "seeds." I'm convinced this is just an attempt to confuse non-sports fans, because "seed" is just another word for ranking. Within each region, a team can be rated 1 through 16. A No. 1 seed will probably do very well and begins the tournament by playing a very low seed as a sort of reward for playing a strong season. The competition is "single elimination," which means a team is out of the tournament when it loses once.
You should know the cute nicknames for the levels of the tournament: Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four. The Sweet Sixteen will be the top four from each of the four regions, the Elite Eight will be the top two from each region and the Final Four will be the top team in each region at the end of the tournament.
Next, you need to create your bracket. You can probably bank on the top "seeds" getting pretty far, but make sure to build in some upsets. If you want to do it the sports-fan way, you can compare teams' records to predict the winners: Of course, this is quite boring. I prefer alternative methods. Coin flipping and the old "close your eyes and point" are favorites.
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