Nathan's Occasional Blog

ESPN.com: SPORTSNATION – Tourney challenge: By the numbers.

Ha … there were four brackets submitted on ESPN that got the Final Four right.  That’s four out of more than [give me your best Dr. Evil here…] 3 million people!  WOW.  As Adam Barr surmised, “They must have all grown up in Louisiana, gone to GMU, done graduate work in Florida, and now work in L.A. Or something.”

I was just telling Alicea this weekend that I remember being in college when ESPN did their first online bracket challenge (I forget the year … ‘96 or ‘97 probably).  I played along and got completely hammered by a weird year like we’ve been having this year.  In the end, though, there was 1 guy who got every single game right.  Now THAT is skill!  Either that or it was Marty McFly….

Oh, and before you ask how my brackets did I have to state that I didn’t fill any out this year … I haven’t for years now.  While growing up we religiously cut out the bracket from the newspaper and stuck it on the fridge for March … updating it by hand after each game ended.  And yes, we did learn to use pencil and not rule a game over until the final buzzer.  A few years back (before we moved to Seattle) I went in on a pool AND WON!  I never saw the reward though, and that’s spoiled me.  Just hasn’t been the same since.

Maybe next year…