The Big Dance started today. The week has been a frantic rush to fill out brackets, to winnow 128 teams (there’s also a women’s tourney going on, people) down to the champions come April. For a break from the careening Dow, people will glue themselves to their screens throughout the weekend watching young athletes try to make up for their schools lost endowments by getting deeper and deeper into the tournament. We’ll all hope for a Cinderella story to cling to, to help us believe that miracles are possible. I once played in the dance (and two years later my team made history by being the only #16 seed to ever beat a #1) and for a long time I watched every second of every game, till I wanted to stab Dick Vitale’s eyes out (there’s only so much Dickie V. one can take). These days I’m more distracted, and much less enamored with the ritual, since it’s more commercial than collegial. I’m sure I’ll still shed a tear come One Shining Moment (I always do), but for now I am keeping my distance from the sports bars.
If you are too, or if you’re a tourney junkie who can’t get enough, there’s still more fun with brackets to be had. Check out this Bracket of Evil. Credo Mobile’s creation is more of a Sour Sixteen, but it’s still fun to consider who’s more vile, Ann Coulter or Fox News, AIG or Blackwater? Pick your winners (losers?) and those with the most votes move on to the next round. One glaring omission is Dick Cheney, but that’s likely because he’d win the whole thing in a blowout.
