Bracketology -- JoeMule Style

I've already established that I don't watch much basketball during the regular season.  Well, let me rephrase that; I watch a LOT of basketball during the regular season.  It just happens to be UCM games my students are webcasting and Warrensburg High School games at which my daughter is dancing.  I just don't catch many games on the tube.

As such, I'm never really into filling out brackets.  Can't really make educated selections when I don't even know the teams, you know?  But this year I thought it would be fun to get in on the action.  Instead of studying the match ups and fill out one bracket, though, I decided to use some highly sophisticated criteria and fill out FIVE brackets.  I then will compare results and see which method is most effective.  Are you ready?  Here we go:

Method 1:  The Top Seeds
A whimpy way out, sure.  Who couldn't pick all the top seeds? But really, what are then odds we'll see no upsets?  Pretty slim! So, KU, you are the favorite, but don't get cocky!

Method 2:  The Cinderella Stories
On the opposite end of the spectrum, let's try all the underdogs.  In this bracket, the lower seed in every round wins.  That means all four 16-seeds will have to run the table to get to the Final Four.  From there, I picked the lower ranked teams in the final poll.  Long odds, to be sure, but how cool would that be to see a tournament full of upsets? So, congratulations, Holy Cross, on your TOTALLY unexpected title (maybe I should put some money on this one ...).

Method 3:  The ABCs of Bracketology
Okay, I did this one on a whim.  You know how some who know nothing about sports will just pick the team wearing their favorite color or with the coolest/cutest mascot? I chose my own approach:  alphabetical order.  Every pairing, the team higher in alphabetical order gets the nod. So, sorry Xavier, you were finished before you started.  Arizona, you get the nod over Arkansas-Little Rock, but just barely.

Method 4: The Scientific Method
I'm a social scientist, so like it or not, I had to pick a bracket based on random selection.  You know how they say on any given day, any team can win? Well, in this bracket literally every team had an equal chance of winning.  Took me a while to lay out this bracket because I had to wait until the First Four were finished (sorry, I was not picking them).  Each round the two teams went into a hat, I picked one out, hat team advanced and the other went into the trash.  So, congratulations California, Yale, Michigan and Middle Tennessee for making the Final Four, and your randomly selected national champion is Yale (seems fitting that the Ivy League school would represent the scientific method, don't you think?).

Method 5:  It's All Heart
And, finally, because so much of sport is about what's on the inside, I picked a bracket based purely on emotion.  For bracket number five I chose based upon my own preference.  This wasn't necessarily  the team I favored, mind you.  For example, I picked Stony Brook because I am not a Kentucky fan. I chose Butler because I just cannot pick a team with Texas in its name.  I have UALR going to the championship game because I grew up in North Little Rock.  But sorry, Trojans.  This year I'm gonna #RallyforRhyan.  Let's go (Austin) Peay!!!

So, those are my picks.  I'll be keeping up each night, and we'll see how close I get (and which bracket is most accurate)!