Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Champs or Chumps?

Twenty-four years in a row. Yes, twenty-four times, the commissioners have laboriously sifted through many and various entries to determine the single team our contestants have anointed as the squad most likely to star in the slo-mo version of "One Shining Moment" and come away with the ever-coveted NCAA championship trophy. We view it as an honor, a twenty-four (and counting) times-in-a-lifetime opportunity to glimpse the inner workings of the serious college basketball fan's mind as he (or she) stares into the future and gives his (or her) informed opinion as to which college team is best in the land.

What measure or system do our contestants use? What magic is employed to ferret out the answer that casual and intense fans alike, all over the nation, are striving to find? That secret is buried deep inside our collective psyche, impossible for mere commissioners to tell.

What we can tell is how often our contestants have been right. And that would be six. You heard right. Our entrants' favorite champion has actually won the tournament only six times in 24 seasons. An astonishing success rate of 25%, a batting average that in baseball would get you demoted to Des Moines in fairly short order.

Which is why a lot of people in Gainesville are shaking right now. Because this year, our contestants have placed their faith in the Florida Gators, our most popular champion with 28 votes. We've already started composing our condolence letter.

Here's the full breakdown of our contestants' choices for champion:

Florida: 28
Arizona: 18
Duke: 15
Syracuse: 14
Kansas: 12
Michigan State: 6 (E Albert, Haklar, Hammer, T Joseph 2, M Josephs, M Leach)
Wichita State: 5 (Fitch, Karlsruher, Lenok 2, Marshall, L Schlegel)
Wisconsin: 1 (Baumgarten)
Villanova: 1 (George B)
Michigan: 1 (L Leach)
Cincinnati: 1 (T Joseph 1)
Baylor: 1 (A Cristinzio)

No love for current #5 in the country Virginia but at least bubble team Baylor got on the list.

Have a great day.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

cannot pull my entry up with the id# provided