By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Sports Blogger
In sports, administrators, coaches and players are always looking to get an edge on their opponents. Fans do it, too, and nowhere is this in play more when it comes to filling out brackets for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, otherwise known as March Madness.
Many people, in an effort to get an edge, fill out multiple brackets in the same pool. Or they fill out different brackets in different pools. Me? I fill out one bracket in one pool. That’s all. I choose to either sink or swim with my picks. Most often, of course, I sink so fast it seems as if an anchor is attached to me. I’m either underwater after Thursday’s games or, if I manage to “survive and advance,” plunge head first on Friday. By the time the Sweet 16 comes around I am gasping for air looking for a lifeline. Instead of a lifesaver, I need a bracketsaver.
I could solve this problem, of course, by filling out another bracket. I could turn every “well, I’m not sure” or “I need an upset here” first-round pick upside down by simply choosing teams other than what I had in my original bracket. In Vegas, they call this hedging your bets. If one bracket gets busted, another one thrives. March Madness becomes March Gladness.
Yet I refuse to do it. This is because it – to me, anyway – defeats the purpose of having a bracket in the first place. I enjoy the drama of it, the comebacks, the last second shots, the buzzer beaters, the glass slipper fitting on the Cinderellas, if only for one game.
What would it be like to have a close game come down to the very last second if you had picked both teams to win? Instead of being on the edge of your seat, I would be on the back of it, relaxing because nothing was on the line. Cheering a winning (or missed) shot in a crowded bar, or moaning and growning a final-moment loss would not exist. I could not take the lack of excitement because to me, it’s all those moments that make March Madness the Great American Sports Spectacle (my own title).
Win or lose, I would rather go down my way. But I would rather win, of course.
Kevin Wilkerson is an award-winning sports writer. He has worked for the Associated Press, daily newspapers and contributed articles to magazines. He is currently editor, publisher and sports blogger for PubClub.com.
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