For my column this week, I wanted to do something that somehow encapsulated the spirit of two very important events happening in late March on Harding’s campus. Of course, I’m talking about Spring Sing and March Madness. While I’ve never been personally invested in Spring Sing festivities, I cannot ignore the significance this long weekend has to many at Harding. That being said, I present to you for the very first time: the Harding bubble bracket.
The Harding bubble bracket is a completely subjective creation by yours truly that takes many of the things that make Harding University unique, ranks them and matches them up against one another. The goal: to determine what single event, rule, lifestyle or what have you is the most unique to Harding, and in turn makes it such a unique place to be.
As I have already stated, the choices and the seeding are completely subjective, and in no way represent the attitudes or beliefs of the university, or student publications. Basically, I came up with this idea and you can’t argue with it. If you have a major problem with anything on the bracket, I suggest you choose more important things to worry about in your life, and maybe pick up a hobby or something. But I digress; let’s take a look at the bracket.
Burks Region:
The Burks region is made up of four events that are seasonal or in some way shape or form, special occasions. To make things simple, these are things that many students experience or participate in, but they don’t happen everyday. The four seeds are as follows: Spring Sing, international programs, Rhodes Rowdies and the Burksys.
Ganus Region:
The Ganus region is comprised of things that are not necessarily unique to Harding, but rather to the town of Searcy. Undoubtedly, Searcy is something that makes Harding unique in and of itself, and is certainly deserving of its own region. I thought of making Searcy a single item on the bracket, but it’s too broad of a category to fit into one item. The four seeds are: Race Street, dry county, number of Sonics and the zonkey.
Benson Region:
The Benson region symbolizes “old school” Harding. Basically, these are the rules and regulations unique to the University that most outsiders don’t understand. The seeds are: Curfew, separate girls and boys swim times and the dress code.
McLarty Region:
The McLarty region is sort of a hodgepodge of the leftover things that don’t have a specific category, but rather are a part of the overall aesthetic of Harding. The seeds in the McLarty region are: three swings and a ring (getting married, obviously), dorm life, chapel and the length of presidencies.
The seeding in each region is based solely upon my opinion of what is most prominent or common in the life of the average Harding student. For example, Spring Sing, Race Street, curfew and three swings and a ring are all things that are staples of Harding life, and that students encounter almost every day. In fairness, not everyone gets married every day, but I once saw a shirt in a Little Rock mall that said: Searcy, I now pronounce you man and wife. So since it’s common knowledge in the state of Arkansas people get married a lot here, it’s a top seed.
If you want to know how I came up with the winners in each matchup, here’s a quick formula:
First, I take in to account how unique the bracket item is to Harding’s campus or to Searcy. Next, I take in to account how important or how big of an ordeal or production the item is on campus. Basically, the item has to be somewhat prominent to Harding students. Thirdly, I measure how strange the event would be to an insider. The winner of each item has to have the highest possible combination of all three of these things, and all areas are of equal value.
The bracket is set up this way to avoid the four top seeds from winning every time. For instance, take the zonkey, the fourth seed in the Ganus region, which advances to the final four. Even though the zonkey isn’t very prominent on campus, its uniqueness and strangeness to outsiders blow everything else in the Ganus bracket out of the water. (As a disclaimer, dry county makes the bracket not because Searcy being a dry county affects everyone at Harding in the sense that they want to buy alcohol, but because of how unique the idea of a dry county is in today’s world, especially in a college town.)
In the end, Spring Sing is the undeniable victor in the quest for Harding uniqueness. The combination of its enormous importance to the Harding community, its unique style and flair and the pure confusion it evokes from those outside Harding’s walls make it the champion.
I hope you enjoy the bracket, and all the festivities surrounding Spring Sing weekend.
