Kenyon Collegian

Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: Opinion

Of course, this just adds to the absurdity of the whole thing. Despite all your prep work, the tourney never goes according to plan. About 95 percent of people who fill out brackets have to be restrained from ripping them to shreds after the first weekend. Three years ago, I was 998 out of 2.25 million on ESPN.com-I was games off. This gave me a false sense of hope that I could win. Two years ago, it was because some school named George Mason Community College made it to the basketball Mecca known as the Final Four. In fact, do you know how many people out of the over two million who entered ESPN.com's Challenge predicted the four teams (Florida, UCLA, LSU and George Mason CC) in the Final Four? One. Not one in a million-one in over two million. This guy, who was not me, got himself a three minute interview on Sportscenter, just like A-Rod, Tom Brady or Lance Armstrong. Can all you non-believers begin to see the immortality that awaits he who can unlock the mystery of March Madness?

Well, my girlfriend certainly did not. Last year, she left me on the computer for an hour and came back to find me still clicking buttons on ESPN.com. Predictably, she was mortified. I had managed to fill out four brackets in this time. What she did not know is that for the last week I had been thinking about them once every six seconds. Then I showed her the names and themes of my four new babies: Master C, I Hate Duke, The Big Ten Rules and Upset Special. At this, she collected herself and ran to the nearest TV, hoping for a Grey's Anatomy rerun. Maybe she is right to scorn this practice. I am three years older than a lot of the guys who I pin my hopes on. Perhaps we, as fans, are forgetting the important parts of life like family, friends, education, sleep and occasional sobriety. Then I smile, because it hits me that college football is less than five months away.

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