Oh, Those Brackets!

Even though I have been a sports fan for most of my life, basketball is still relatively new to me. I never really gave the game a chance until I met my husband. After covering many, many basketball games for his television show, the game has grown on me. So, this is the first year that I have really gotten into the ritual that is March Madness.

Mark and I completed our brackets and waited with baited breath for the madness to begin. It finally dawned on me why they call it madness. There are so many games in just a few days that it really is maddening to try to keep up with it all. We have been poised in front of the television for hours trying to follow all the games. At this point, it has all begun to run together for me. Don't even ask me who I picked to win in the 3rd round. I barely know who is playing today!

So, as far as the brackets go, it starts out with 64 teams. The brackets are divided up into four regions. By the way, these regions seem to be picked at random. It is very difficult to tell which team is in which region. Anyway, in the first round, they play 32 games in two days. This eliminates half the teams. The points are tallied as the games are completed and the winners determined. You receive one point for each correct prediction for a potential total of 32.

The second round is 16 games played by 32 teams. This round gives two points for each correct prediction. The third round is the Sweet Sixteen with 16 teams playing eight games. Each correct answer this round earns three points. The fourth round is the Elite Eight giving four points each. The semi-finals is called the Final Four with four teams playing two games (giving 5 points each). The finals yield six points when the winning team becomes the national champions. This process is very exciting but really is maddening at the same time!

Mark and I were watching yesterday and he paused to ask me why I cared about any of this. He pointed out that we are not doing well enough with our bracket predictions to win anything. But, it is the competition that I am enjoying. As a girl trying to exist in the man's world of sports, I love to succeed in anything that guys think we can't do! I guess it's that rebellious streak in me that says "Anything you can do, I can do better!!" I love to hang with the guys and be a constant source of surprise for them.