By Aaron O'Connell
Every year when March rolls around, sports fans across the nation gather at their computers and around tables to fill in their NCAA brackets, many foolishly hoping that they have some inner knowledge that will help them claim the elusive and improbable: the perfect bracket.
Even our Commander In Chief gave us his take on "Barackatology" on national television, filling out a giant bracket and warning his champion pick, the Tar Heels, "Don't embarrass me in front of the nation."
This year marked the first time I created a tournament bracket for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
And with the Final Four to be decided this Saturday, I now have time to reflect on my entirely busted bracket.
In retrospect there were several matches I should have seen coming. I never should have picked the University of Washington over Purdue. Or picked Michigan over Oklahoma.
But aside from these few and far-between moments of idiocy, after I first made my selections, I actually thought that my bracket was pretty damn legit. ?How mistaken I was. My career as a bracketologist was fated to be very brief.
I should have known that I was screwed when Wake Forest went down in the opening round.
But every wrong prediction my bracket suffered, the more important the next game became.
Every calculation in my bracket which became a win I attributed to my supreme knowledge of college basketball, and every missed point was a horrid fluke which absolutely nobody could have foreseen.
I rejoiced when I correctly predicted Duke's loss to Villanova, or Missouri's triumph over Memphis; and was quick to point out to everyone that my bracket was first in my pool of 16. Pride always comes before the fall.
The clock ultimately struck midnight on my bracket when Pittsburgh tipped off against Villanova.
Pittsburgh, my champion pick, had been struggling in the tournament - and honestly I shouldn't have been surprised.
But when 'Nova gave the Panthers a golden opportunity to send the game into overtime, they just couldn't hold on.
Pitt, are you serious?
If you simply could have played good defensive basketball for five and a half seconds, you could have sent the game to overtime and had a chance to redeem your sub-par tournament play.
But no, instead you had to suck. Okay, sure, Reynolds is a baller. But everyone knew he was going to take the final shot, and it was only 5.5 seconds. And he made the shot before the final buzzer even sounded.
Pittsburgh: YOU FAIL.
The next day, Louisville went down, the team I picked to lose to the Panthers in the championship. But I wasn't watching- who likes college basketball anyway?
It is now impossible for me to earn any more points for my bracket.
But I'm not upset.
In fact, this bracket explosion has spurned an epiphany I have had concerning NCAA brackets.
The whole thing is complete luck.
There are over 9.2 quintillion possible brackets. Actually there are exactly 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 possible ways that the NCAA brackets can come out.
I am therefore forced to conclude that my bracket failure is not my fault. It is, in fact, the fault of the odds, and of course, the majority of the fault lies with Pitt.
So why bother?
Because there is a one in nine quintillion chance of getting a perfect bracket. And that's a chance.
True, its over twice as likely that you will be attacked by a shark and struck by lightning in a calendar year. But its still a chance.
Oh, and go 'Nova.
Not because I like them, but because if they win it's more likely to screw up everyone else's bracket.
?Aaron O'Connell is the Sports Editor of the Beacon.? He can be contacted at ?oconnell11@up.edu
