My Own Version of March Madness

 

A guy at my work is hosting an office pool for March Madness.  I don’t know which way is up when it comes to college basketball.  I follow the OKC Thunder, but where basketball is concerned that is as far as it goes for me.  So, I decided that I would choose my teams based on their mascots.  I sat down and started Googling the mascots of each school.  This lasted until I wrote Wildcats next to Kentucky (the first team on the bracket).  I went to the guy in the office and told him what I had planned, but that I was not looking up the mascots for all 64 schools.  He pleaded with me to join the pool anyway as there had been a weak turnout.  I agreed and paid $10 for me and $10 for Jason.  (I decided that it would be a good way to get a pair of wedges from Naturalizer that I have been eying.)

I went back to my hotel and Googled “2012 March Madness Mascots” and low and behold there was a bracket made up of just mascots.  It was awesome.  I immediately printed it out and got to work deciding which mascots I thought could make it all the way.  My only rule was animals over humans.  It was really fun because there we no team names anywhere on the paper, so I couldn’t be biased at all.  I chose a greyhound to go pretty far in the Eastern Conference and then I chose an elephant to go all the way to the finals.  As it turns out, once I went to the normal bracket and started filling in the team names I learned that the elephant was actually the Crimson Tide.  I’m not sure what happened there, but superstition says I can’t change the original choices.  

Even though I was dreading participating in the tournament, now that I have actually filled out a bracket I am really excited to see how my mascots do. 

You can get the printable mascot bracket here and the printable NCAA bracket here.

I hope you join the madness in your own way.  Who knows, maybe my 16th seed mascot really will beat the #1 seeded mascot.