Generally, when referring to March Madness you begin to think about the NCAA tournament, filling out brackets and Davids vs, Goliaths.
This is a great time of year when it doesn’t matter which school is favorite, anything goes (see Duke vs Mercer) and the underdog is ready to make a name for themselves.
I used to be real big on March Madness. I even told people that bracketology was my major. I still like March Madness, but not to the degree I used to.
My freshman year I knew I had put together the perfect bracket, (well in this case brackets because I made 23 of them). I pulled the numbers, analyzed the data and by the end of it, I believed I had about a 90 percent chance of one being perfect.
So being my smug self, I entered all of them into the ESPN challenge and waited for the media to announce that I, Patrick Bingham, had put together the perfect bracket.
By now you have probably realized it didn’t go the way I planned. After the round of 64, only seven of my brackets were perfect, and by the time the elite eight came around only one was left unblemished.
At this point I was rattled but remained hopeful. Kentucky, North Carolina, Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, VCU, Butler and Florida remained until my dream was shattered.
Only Connecticut who I picked to win remained. Connecticut went on to beat Butler, which in my opinion was one of the worst championship games played in a long time.
I think I’ve seen better pick-up games and it was at that point I realized that I had become a victim to March Madness itself.
I spent so much time trying to pick the right bracket I never enjoyed any of the games due to bias about who I wanted to win.
I still make a bracket but more importantly, I enjoy the games and arguing with my friends over who is going to win it all.
