Trash-Talking and March Madness – I’m In!

While perusing my WordPress reader, I noticed a new post by super blogger and author, Nathan Bransford. It was titled, “7th Annual Blog Bracket Challenge!!”

I could not figure out what kind of bracket challenge could warrant two exclamation points so I clicked to find out. He was creating a group for the ESPN [college basketball] Tournament Challenge for March Madness. Joining would mean choosing the winners out of 64 teams. All I knew was CU was out and my alma mater, UW-Madison, was ranked pretty high.

I left a comment:

“It sounds like another social media time suck, so I’M IN!”

Even though it was free to enter, ESPN will award the first place winner a $20,000 Best Buy gift card and a trip to the 2015 Maui Invitational. Another winner will be chosen from the top 1%. Nathan is offering a query letter review or something else agreed upon to the first place winner of his group. There was plenty of incentive, so I checked it out.

After creating a profile, I found Nathan’s group. I knew I wouldn’t have a chance in hell of winning since I would be guessing while competing against 39 others, but I’m always up for meeting new people and liked the idea of trying something new. I was drawn into The Madness for the first time.

After clicking on a few picks, I discovered I could click on the team and it gave a description of their offense and defense and predictions for the first round. This worked for some of them, but others had about the same amount of wins and losses, so I guessed. I bet I spent all of five minutes on this before bed Wednesday night. The brackets were locked on Thursday.

I pretty much freaked out when I checked on Friday and most of mine WON! How did that happen? I missed Iowa St. and Baylor, but so did the majority. Ole Miss lost and then Villanova on Saturday, but I am still in first place for my group. I’m in the 99.2%, 87,755 place with 380 points. Whoa! That means I’M IN THE TOP 1%!

This is my attempt at a predicted bracket and the outcomes so far.

Here’s the other half. Of course I picked Wisconsin to win it all. Go Big Red!

There is a list of celebrities on ESPN’s tournament page. I was tied with Jimmy Kimmel, so I tweeted him. I don’t let just anyone rub my belly…

Now I’m beating Kimmel by 10 points! I better smack talk him before the games are played today.

Will Farrell is in the 4,000,000’s somewhere and is in 61.6%. There are a load of people competing.

I had to brag it up on Twitter. You know me, I exaggerated and forgot to say that I was in first place “for my group.”

ESPN tweeted me:

I was pretty stoked when they favorited my tweet.

ESPN does live updates, so every time I refresh, check out Bransford’s group, or the front page, another game could be complete and the final score will change my standing. I could finish in first place or I could go down in flames. There’s a long way to go.  Either way, I found out this can be a lot of fun even though it is another major time suck.

I can’t wait until Fantasy Football!

Did you know anything about brackets? Are you playing? Would you like to play next year?