BearDown Bracket Madness '25

[UAEebs86]

If it wasn't for Lando I'd be DFL

[TheCat]

The biggest loser in the NIL sweepstakes is mid-majors. How many teams from non power conferences are left. ZERO (after Colorado State was robbed). Mid majors are now the G league for the power conferences. Great players will be snatched up by the power conferences and mid majors will not be relevant in the future. If your bracket contained a Cinderella you are hurting. I will say that was the really selling point of the March Madness to me. An unexpected run by a team that no one knows anything about.
There will be March but the madness will be gone soon.

[dmjcat]

The biggest loser in the NIL sweepstakes is mid-majors. How many teams from non power conferences are left. ZERO (after Colorado State was robbed). Mid majors are now the G league for the power conferences. Great players will be snatched up by the power conferences and mid majors will not be relevant in the future. If your bracket contained a Cinderella you are hurting. I will say that was the really selling point of the March Madness to me. An unexpected run by a team that no one knows anything about.
There will be March but the madness will be gone soon.

Agree completely.

In another cycle or two all of the brackets will largely go chalk, with fewer and fewer upsets.
Another thing that NIL/Portal has screwed up.

[dirtbags]

The biggest loser in the NIL sweepstakes is mid-majors. How many teams from non power conferences are left. ZERO (after Colorado State was robbed). Mid majors are now the G league for the power conferences. Great players will be snatched up by the power conferences and mid majors will not be relevant in the future. If your bracket contained a Cinderella you are hurting. I will say that was the really selling point of the March Madness to me. An unexpected run by a team that no one knows anything about.
There will be March but the madness will be gone soon.

true dat. NIL killed cinderella.

[UAEebs86]

And yet people want to expand the field. So dumb.

[U.P. Zona Fan]

No trying to brag, but my women's bracket in our family pool had the first 34 games picked correctly. I've been filling these things out since 1990 when you had to wait til Monday and get the newspaper and I've never had a perfect day let alone a perfect round. I know it's the women's, and that tournament is easier to predict, but the whole family was pretty excited about it. First bum pick was K st. over Kentucky by 1 in OT.
I currently have 2 games wrong.

[Chicat]

The biggest loser in the NIL sweepstakes is mid-majors. How many teams from non power conferences are left. ZERO (after Colorado State was robbed). Mid majors are now the G league for the power conferences. Great players will be snatched up by the power conferences and mid majors will not be relevant in the future. If your bracket contained a Cinderella you are hurting. I will say that was the really selling point of the March Madness to me. An unexpected run by a team that no one knows anything about.
There will be March but the madness will be gone soon.

true dat. NIL killed cinderella.

This may be true, but it’s not like the committee littered the field with mid-majors and they all got blown out. The SEC had 14(!) teams in the field. B1G had 9. BigXII had 6. That’s nearly half the field right there. And it seemed like worthy mids got passed over for marginally worthy majors.

Hard to be a Cinderella if you don’t get in the field.

By the way though, this kind of major conference dominance has happened before. Three other times prior to last year we’ve had no mids in the Sweet Sixteen. Had nothing to do with NIL back then because it didn’t exist. So maybe these things are just rare but cyclical.

[dirtbags]

an ironic side effect, i think, is that cinderellas are purportedly great for tv ratings but the revenue disparities created by networks like CBS & TNT make mid-major underdogs less probable. the model sort of eats itself.


related: there's a fun read in this week about the role of a team's luck vs. skill during march madness, digging into "luck" analytics and touching on fan superstitions and influencing a team's luck through your own actions. also, compared with football, baseball, soccer, and hockey, basketball was the sport whose season was the least swayed by luck (hockey and soccer were the most). which makes sense given the ratio of scoring & defensive opportunities per game vs. "lucky" freak plays. --> Is March Madness All Luck?

[dmjcat]

The biggest loser in the NIL sweepstakes is mid-majors. How many teams from non power conferences are left. ZERO (after Colorado State was robbed). Mid majors are now the G league for the power conferences. Great players will be snatched up by the power conferences and mid majors will not be relevant in the future. If your bracket contained a Cinderella you are hurting. I will say that was the really selling point of the March Madness to me. An unexpected run by a team that no one knows anything about.
There will be March but the madness will be gone soon.

true dat. NIL killed cinderella.

This may be true, but it’s not like the committee littered the field with mid-majors and they all got blown out. The SEC had 14(!) teams in the field. B1G had 9. BigXII had 6. That’s nearly half the field right there. And it seemed like worthy mids got passed over for marginally worthy majors.

Hard to be a Cinderella if you don’t get in the field.

By the way though, this kind of major conference dominance has happened before. Three other times prior to last year we’ve had no mids in the Sweet Sixteen. Had nothing to do with NIL back then because it didn’t exist. So maybe these things are just rare but cyclical.

You are confusing cause and effect.

Its hard to be a cinderalla when you can't get in the field because all of your good players hit the portal for more money$$$.....leavimg you
with a talent-less team which can't qualify for the tournament.

[Bangkok Wildcat]

What’s interesting is that 14 years ago we Beat #1 Duke as a 5 seed I believe in the S16…….remember Derrick Williams and Jamelle Horne dunks amongst others as we stunned and blew them out in the second half…..Kevin Parrom, Momo Jones, Solomon Hill amongst others……..so who knows, maybe lightning will strike again. BTFD.

PS. We ended up losing to UConn (the eventual NC) by 2 in the Elite 8.

[AZCatGirl]

For anyone like me feeling bad about how bad our picks have been, I just saw on KOLD that 30 people in the ESPN bracket game didn't get a single pick right. So at least none of us are doing THAT bad.

[Chicat]

For anyone like me feeling bad about how bad our picks have been, I just saw on KOLD that 30 people in the ESPN bracket game didn't get a single pick right. So at least none of us are doing THAT bad.

Picking all 16 seeds to advance is a bold strategy.

[pc in NM]

For anyone like me feeling bad about how bad our picks have been, I just saw on KOLD that 30 people in the ESPN bracket game didn't get a single pick right. So at least none of us are doing THAT bad.

Picking all 16 seeds to advance is a bold strategy.

Actually, a "Low score wins" would be an interesting option for Tournament Challenge, eh??

[EastCoastCat]

For anyone like me feeling bad about how bad our picks have been, I just saw on KOLD that 30 people in the ESPN bracket game didn't get a single pick right. So at least none of us are doing THAT bad.

Picking all 16 seeds to advance is a bold strategy.

Actually, a "Low score wins" would be an interesting option for Tournament Challenge, eh??

It's just as hard to get all your picks wrong as it is to get them right...

[Chicat]

For anyone like me feeling bad about how bad our picks have been, I just saw on KOLD that 30 people in the ESPN bracket game didn't get a single pick right. So at least none of us are doing THAT bad.

Picking all 16 seeds to advance is a bold strategy.

Actually, a "Low score wins" would be an interesting option for Tournament Challenge, eh??

It's just as hard to get all your picks wrong as it is to get them right...

Not exactly true. To get all your picks wrong you have to incorrectly pick 32 winners. To get them all right you have to pick 63.

[EastCoastCat]

For anyone like me feeling bad about how bad our picks have been, I just saw on KOLD that 30 people in the ESPN bracket game didn't get a single pick right. So at least none of us are doing THAT bad.

Picking all 16 seeds to advance is a bold strategy.

Actually, a "Low score wins" would be an interesting option for Tournament Challenge, eh??

It's just as hard to get all your picks wrong as it is to get them right...

Not exactly true. To get all your picks wrong you have to incorrectly pick 32 winners. To get them all right you have to pick 63.

I have no idea how Femcat puts up with you..

[Chicat]

Picking all 16 seeds to advance is a bold strategy.

Actually, a "Low score wins" would be an interesting option for Tournament Challenge, eh??

It's just as hard to get all your picks wrong as it is to get them right...

Not exactly true. To get all your picks wrong you have to incorrectly pick 32 winners. To get them all right you have to pick 63.

I have no idea how Femcat puts up with you..

Its my mathematical charm most likely.

[EastCoastCat]

Actually, a "Low score wins" would be an interesting option for Tournament Challenge, eh??

It's just as hard to get all your picks wrong as it is to get them right...

Not exactly true. To get all your picks wrong you have to incorrectly pick 32 winners. To get them all right you have to pick 63.

I have no idea how Femcat puts up with you..

Its my mathematical charm most likely.

Do this math for me wizard as I’m sucking down some Bourbon in a bar maybe 30 minutes from Newark. Should ECC go all in and plunk down 7 bills for Thursday nights game?

[Chicat]

Do this math for me wizard as I’m sucking down some Bourbon in a bar maybe 30 minutes from Newark. Should ECC go all in and plunk down 7 bills for Thursday nights game?

Did you pack your lucky underwear?

[EastCoastCat]

Do this math for me wizard as I’m sucking down some Bourbon in a bar maybe 30 minutes from Newark. Should ECC go all in and plunk down 7 bills for Thursday nights game?

Did you pack your lucky underwear?

I don’t tread on Ari’s space, but I will certainly wear his if he wants to ship it to me.

But I do have my lucky hat and jacket. Just in case I tell my wife I’m not coming home Thursday night as planned.

Tried to get my company to pay for 2 tickets and take one of my Clients but my boss, who knows me, said I might jeopardize the account if Arizona loses.

[Alieberman]

Did you pack your lucky underwear?

I don’t tread on Ari’s space, but I will certainly wear his if he wants to ship it to me.

Trust me... you do not want them!

[Chicat]

Do this math for me wizard as I’m sucking down some Bourbon in a bar maybe 30 minutes from Newark. Should ECC go all in and plunk down 7 bills for Thursday nights game?

Did you pack your lucky underwear?

I don’t tread on Ari’s space, but I will certainly wear his if he wants to ship it to me.

But I do have my lucky hat and jacket. Just in case I tell my wife I’m not coming home Thursday night as planned.

Tried to get my company to pay for 2 tickets and take one of my Clients but my boss, who knows me, said I might jeopardize the account if Arizona loses.

“I had the sale all wrapped up. It was going to make my year! Then Caleb started jacking up threes with 20 seconds left on the shot clock up by 8 with two minutes left and I guess I sort of went a little crazy…”

[Bangkok Wildcat]

Man, I so understand-estimated Michigan State! Ughhh.

[AZCatGirl]

Man, I so understand-estimated Michigan State! Ughhh.

Never count Izzo out in March.

[Bangkok Wildcat]

Thank you Auburn for saving me from MSU ha ha. Close race so far….good luck down the stretch.

[Alieberman]

Top 5 going into Final 4 Weekend:

1- Jeff Brown (Houston)
2 Ted Tietjen (Houston)
3- Professor Fate (Florida)
4- Patrick Collins (Duke)

And I'm actually in 7th but top points with Auburn winning