Let The Madness Begin!

If there were ever any doubt regarding the competency of President Barack Obama, it was dispelled entirely with the filling out of his NCAA bracket. The dude knows his hoops. I love the fact that he can actually back up his picks with knowledge of the teams involved (unlike yours truly), and that he'll be taking time out of his working day to sneak a few peeks at the action.

Unfortunately for President Obama, however, he will not be winning his office pool this year.

Because as has been mentioned in this forum previously, there are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 ways to fill out your NCAA Men's basketball bracket, but only one way to fill it out correctly. And I'd like to go on record as saying that my bracket has been filled out just so.

(By the way, I love the fact that I look at my bracket here on Wednesday night and am able to talk myself into both Cleveland State and North Dakota State for the Sweet-16 because I happened to have attended a huge Cleveland State upset last year, and because Chuck Klosterman is from North Dakota and Gus Johnson will be calling the Minneapolis games... I'm guessing that by about 6pm on Thursday, I'll be lighting my bracket on fire and wondering just what the fuck I could have possibly been thinking.)

So fill in your brackets. Call in sick to work. Settle in for 12 hours on the couch. And enjoy the finest four days of sports the calendar year has to offer.

And if my history of sports prognosticating is any kind of an indicator, do everything in your power to avoid taking a Final Four consisting of Louisville, Memphis, Pitt, and Oklahoma, with Pitt beating Louisville in the National Championship.

Happy Bracketteering!

PS - For those looking for some last minute inspiration in filling out their bracket, check out the Sports Guy's podcast, where Simmons and Joe House go over every game in the tourney. This is surprisingly entertaining, particularly when they contemplate the possibility that this player is Lloyd Christmas' illegitmate son.