Bracketology

You have just a few hours left to turn in your NCAA bracket for the office pool.  For those of you who picked Wisconsin to win it all (or more foolishly, Marquette), we thank you for your donation to the prize fund--and better luck next year.  For those who think they are going to the be the one that finally turns in the perfect bracket to win the million dollar on-line prize, know that you will be cancelling your retirement plans by the end of the work day--because that is never, ever going to happen.

Please notice that I said bracket and not brackets there.  You do not want to be Multiple Brackets Guy at this time of year.  I'm not saying you can't play in a number of pools and on-line contests--but when you do so, your picks should be the same in all of them.

For years I ran NCAA Tournament pools, and there would always be a couple of guys that would turn in two, three or as many as five sheets--all with different permutations of winners each round and separate national champions.  Here's what I can tell you about those guys: they never won.  Todd 1, Todd 2 and Todd 3 would always end up in the middle of the pack--because none of the brackets ever had the correct mix of upsets and top seeds making it deep into the tourney to set their entry apart from all the rest.

What's more, Multiple Brackets Guy can usually take false credit for correctly predicting the biggest upset of the tournament.  When a 14 beats a 3 in the opening round, he's the guy that comes in the next morning "Yep, I had that one".  Yes, he did have it, on one of the four entries in turned in.  But on the three other sheets, he had that Cinderella losing--and that 3-seed going to the Elite Eight. 

I don't know how Multiple Brackets Guy even enjoys the tournament.  He's like In Four Fantasy Football Leagues Guy--who can't cheer for anything on Sundays because the wide receiver having a huge day for him in one matchup is killing him in two other leagues.  And that's why Multiple Brackets Guy always ends up in the middle of the pack--one team that helps him on one sheet, hurts him on the other two.

So be a man and pare down those multiple entries to one bracket that you believe in.  And don't get discouraged when the woman in accounting wins by picking each game by which mascot sounds "tougher".