First Annual SportsChump March Madness Bracket Bonanza

March 15th, 2010 by Chris Humpherys

College basketball junkies and gambling degenerates alike, welcome to Sportschump.net’s first ever March Madness Bracket Bonanza.

The next three weeks will ring in the most entertaining time of the year for sports fans: the NCAA Tournament, where anyone can be a hero, including you!  That’s assuming you can master the madness.

This site’s contest will be held a tad differently than most.  It will require a honed eye, a keen knowledge of the college basketball season… and as usual, a little luck.

The 2010 NCAA brackets are broken down as follows:

MIDWEST

Oklahoma City
Thursday, March 18
No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 16 Lehigh
No. 8 UNLV vs. No. 9 Northern Iowa

Spokane
Friday, March 19
No. 5 Michigan State vs. No. 12 New Mexico State
No. 4 Maryland vs. No. 13 Houston

Providence
Thursday, March 18
No. 6 Tennessee vs. No. 11 San Diego State
No. 3 Georgetown vs. No. 14 Ohio U.

Milwaukee
Friday, March 19
No. 7 Oklahoma State vs. No. 10 Georgia Tech
No. 2 Ohio State vs. No. 15 UC-Santa Barbara

WEST

Buffalo
Friday, March 19
No. 1 Syracuse vs. No. 16 Vermont
No. 8 Gonzaga vs. No. 9 Florida State

San Jose
Thursday, March 18
No. 5 Butler vs. No. 12 UTEP
No. 4 Vanderbilt vs. No. 13 Murray State

Milwaukee
Friday, March 19
No. 6 Xavier vs. No. 11 Minnesota
No. 3 Pittsburgh vs. No. 14 Oakland

Oklahoma City
Thursday, March 18
No. 7 BYU vs. No. 10 Florida
No. 2 Kansas State vs. No. 15 North Texas

EAST

New Orleans
Thursday, March 18
No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 16 East Tennessee State
No. 8 Texas vs. No. 9 Wake Forest

Jacksonville
Friday, March 19
No. 5 Temple vs. No. 12 Cornell
No. 4 Wisconsin vs. No. 13 Wofford

San Jose
Thursday, March 18
No. 6 Marquette vs. No. 11 Washington
No. 3 New Mexico vs. No. 14 Montana

Buffalo
Friday, March 19
No. 7 Clemson vs. No. 10 Missouri
No. 2 West Virginia vs. No. 15 Morgan State

SOUTH

Jacksonville
Friday, March 19
No. 1 Duke vs. No. 16 Arkansas Pine Bluff-Winthrop winner
No. 8 California vs. No. 9 Louisville

Spokane
Friday, March 19
No. 5 Texas A&M vs. No. 12 Utah State
No. 4 Purdue vs. No. 13 Siena

New Orleans
Thursday, March 18
No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 11 Old Dominion
No. 3 Baylor vs. No. 14 Sam Houston State

Providence
Thursday, March 18
No. 7 Richmond vs. No. 10 Saint Mary’s
No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 15 Robert Morris

Your first task is to choose the ONE team from each foursome above that you think will reach the Sweet 16.  For example, for the games held in Providence, Rhode Island, choose one team (Richmond, St, Mary’s, Villanova, Robert Morris) you think will survive through the first Sunday.

NO points will be awarded for the winners of the Thursday/Friday matchups!!!  However, if any of your Sweet Sixteen teams fail to make it through the first weekend, YOU CANNOT EARN POINTS WITH THEM IN LATER ROUNDS.  There are no re-buys, ladies and gentlemen.

List ONLY your sweet sixteen teams in the comments below.  After the first two rounds, you will then be asked to pick the winners of later rounds based upon which teams you have remaining.

Your Sweet Sixteen selections must be in by Thursday noon!!!  Bookmark this page for regular scoring updates and to select which of your remaining teams will advance.  Be sure to return after the first weekend to make the rest of your picks.

The scoring is as follows:

Three points will be awarded for each correct Sweet 16 team for a 48 maximum possible points in the first round.  Five points will be awarded for each Elite 8 team you select, seven points for each Final 4 team, nine for each team you select in the final game and eleven points for picking the national champion from the get-go.

To the victor go the spoils, your name in the SportsChump Hall of Fame and a fashionable SportsChump t-shirt to call your own.

Sportsfans…. LET THE MADNESS BEGIN!!!

—————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Fritch	Feller	Seay	Aero	Puckett	Pacman	Nelly
Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas
Mary	MSU	MSU	MSU	NMU	Mary	Mary
GTown	Tenn	Tenn	Tenn	GTown	SDSU	GTown
OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU
Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse
Vandy	Vandy	Vandy	Butler	Vandy	Vandy	Butler
Xavier	Xavier	Pitt	Minn	Xavier	Pitt	Pitt
KSU	UF	KSU	UF	KSU	KSU	UF
UK	UK	UK	UK	Texas	UK	UK
Temple	Temple	Temple	Wisc	Wisc	Wisc	Temple
Marq	UNM	Wisc	Marq	UNM	Marq	UNM
WVU	Clem	WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU
Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke
A&M	A&M	Purdue	Purdue	Siena	A&M	A&M
Baylor	ND	ND	ND	Baylor	ND	Baylor
Rich	Nova	Nova	Nova	Nova	Nova	Nova

Yaz	Chump	Nice	Collins	Sprague	Jewell
Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas
Mary	MSU	MSU	MSU	Mary	Mary
GTown	GTown	GTown	GTown	Tenn	GTown
OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	Ga Tech
Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse
UTEP	Butler	Butler	Butler	Butler	Butler
Xavier	Pitt	Pitt	Pitt	Pitt	Pitt
KSU	UF	KSU	KSU	KSU	KSU
UK	UK	UK	UK	UK	UK
Temple	Temple	Temple	Wisc	Wisc	Temple
Marq	Marq	Marq	Wash	UNM	UNM
WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU
Duke	Duke	Duke	Lville	Duke	Duke
A&M	Siena	Purdue	A&M	Purdue	Purdue
Baylor	ND	Baylor	ND	ND	ND
Nova	SMU	Nova	Nova	Nova	Nova

The picks are in, gentlemen, and the madness has officially begun!  We shall hereby call ourselves the Thirsty Thirteen.  Thirsty for winners, thirsty for whiskey and thirsty to be called King Chump for a Day.

As you can see, it’s been a little bloody so far.  Please review your entries for accuracy.

Here’s a few things I’ve noticed about the picks so far…

ROUGH OPENING DAY: Before sundown, Mr. Feller already had three of his Sweet 16 picks eliminated.  With the rash of Thursday upsets, most of us weren’t far behind.  At least we’ll have something to talk about on our radio show.  Only Liar North has 15 of 16 remaining.  His daughter must have made his picks for him.

BRAINFART OF THE WEEK PICK: Mr. Seay picked both Temple and Wisconsin to advance to the Sweet 16.  Only problem is those two schools are both in the same bracket, making such an event impossible.  I’ll refrain from telling you he’s a University of Tennessee graduate but hey, at least his alma mater is still in the tournament.

BOLD PICKS THAT MAY OR NOT PAN OUT: Brotha E was the only one of us to select Georgia Tech to reach the Sweet 16.  Feller was the only one to pick Clemson.  Heavy D was the only one to pick Louisville to beat Duke.  Puckett was the only man to pick Texas over Kentucky (whoops!)  I was the only one to pick St Mary’s over Villanova.  Good luck to all.  We’ll see how this plays out in later rounds.

HOMER PICKS: Four of us chose Florida with the hope they could return one step closer to championship form.  The remaining nine chose Kansas State, realizing that teams who play inconsistent defense and who don’t value every possession are doomed to fail, especially in March.  How soon until Austin Rivers enrolls?

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Fritch	Feller	Seay	Aero	Puckett	Pacman	Nelly
Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas
Mary	MSU	MSU	MSU	NMU	Mary	Mary
GTown	Tenn	Tenn	Tenn	GTown	SDSU	GTown
OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU
Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse
Vandy	Vandy	Vandy	Butler	Vandy	Vandy	Butler
Xavier	Xavier	Pitt	Minn	Xavier	Pitt	Pitt
KSU	UF	KSU	UF	KSU	KSU	UF
UK	UK	UK	UK	Texas	UK	UK
Temple	Temple	Temple	Wisc	Wisc	Wisc	Temple
Marq	UNM	Wisc	Marq	UNM	Marq	UNM
WVU	Clem	WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU
Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke	Duke
A&M	A&M	Purdue	Purdue	Siena	A&M	A&M
Baylor	ND	ND	ND	Baylor	ND	Baylor
Rich	Nova	Nova	Nova	Nova	Nova	Nova
24	21	27	27	21	18	21

Yaz	Chump	Nice	Collins	Sprague	Jewell
Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas	Kansas
Mary	MSU	MSU	MSU	Mary	Mary
GTown	GTown	GTown	GTown	Tenn	GTown
OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	OSU	Ga Tech
Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse	Cuse
UTEP	Butler	Butler	Butler	Butler	Butler
Xavier	Pitt	Pitt	Pitt	Pitt	Pitt
KSU	UF	KSU	KSU	KSU	KSU
UK	UK	UK	UK	UK	UK
Temple	Temple	Temple	Wisc	Wisc	Temple
Marq	Marq	Marq	Wash	UNM	UNM
WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU	WVU
Duke	Duke	Duke	Lville	Duke	Duke
A&M	Siena	Purdue	A&M	Purdue	Purdue
Baylor	ND	Baylor	ND	ND	ND
Nova	SMU	Nova	Nova	Nova	Nova
24	24	30	24	27	24

Sweet Sixteen Standings:

Nice: 30

Sprague: 27

Aero: 27

Seay: 27

Fritch: 24

Yaz: 24

Chump: 24

Collins: 24

Jewell: 24

Feller: 21

Nelly: 21

Puckett: 21

Pacman: 18

First off, much props to the frequently seen and always keen, gas-facin’, Zima-drinkin’, Buckeye-lovin’ Pedro_Nice who nailed a spectacular ten out of the Sweet Sixteen.  With all the upsets in this year’s tournament, such prognostication is to be commended. Take a bow, Pete.  And as we have one Ohio State grad (Pete_Nice) and one Tennessee grad (Austin Seay) participating in this year’s contest, things should get pretty heated as their two schools square off against one another in the very next round.  Let the trash talking begin.

Gentlemen, read carefully because here are the rules for the following rounds.

You can ONLY USE THE TEAMS YOU HAVE REMAINING to choose your winners from here on out.  In the comments section below, I need you to fill out the entire rest of your brackets.  Pick your winners for the Elite Eight, Final Four, championship game and national champion and please do so in intelligible format.

List accordingly

Elite 8: Teams A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H

Final Four: Teams A, B, C, D

Championship Game: Teams A, B

National Champion: Team A

Again… if any of your teams have been eliminated into the round of 8, you CAN NOT gain points for that round.  If you can’t pick 8 teams for this round, so be it.  Just list your possible winners.  For example, I selected neither Xavier nor Kansas State to advance in the bottom half of the West bracket, so I cannot gain points for that particular game.  But as I still have St Mary’s alive and not Baylor, I will obviously choose St Mary’s and hope they win to gain five points in that particular matchup.

INCOMPLETE ENTRIES WILL NOT GARNER POINTS FOR THAT ROUND.  Go easy on me, guys.

Please ensure that I have correctly tabulated your total points and remaining teams.  If not, let me know.

To review the scoring, five points will be awarded for each team properly selected into the Elite Eight, seven points for each Final Four team selected, nine for each team you predict into the final game and eleven for correctly picking the national champion.

I need your picks for the rest of the tournament by no later than 7:00 pm Thursday.

The t-shirt orders have been placed so have at it, gentlemen.  Might even order me some scarlet and gray for my boy, Pete_Nice if he can seal the deal.  Oh…. and if I win, you all will never hear the end of it.

Tags: Clemson, College Basketball, Duke Blue Devils, Florida Gators, Georgia Tech, Kansas Jayhawks, Kansas State, March Madness, NCAA, Ohio State Buckeyes, Syracuse, University of Kentucky, Villanova, Wisconsin Badgers
Posted in Hardwood