March Madness is here again! Time for the annual Straight Dope Tournament Pool!
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Group Name: SDMB Bracketeers
Password: cecil123
Brackets will be announced shortly. Join our group and enter a bracket… or two, or three! (Limit three.)
Finally an upset. No Notre Dame. I’m tired of seeing teams yawning when their name is announced. They promised upsets - they must all be in this last group. If your school name starts with an early letter, you know if you’re in or you’re out.
Arizona State? They are about sixth or seventh in their own conference. They lost to Colorado twice. And no USC? They were the second best team in the PAC 12 and were left out.
St. Mary’s got left out and they were in the Top 25 pretty much all season. They should’ve at least earned a play-in.
After many years of faithfully filling out my brackets - and doing the SDMB pool last year - I feel I can no longer support the NCAA juggernaut over the “student athletes” so I will not only not fill out a bracket, but will not watch any of the games, and also not watch any programs at all on networks that carry the games for the duration of the tournament. My own little protest boycott.
have fun,
mc
ps: Last Week Tonight had a good take on the sitch back in 2015
I can’t figure out how Oklahoma got in and Oklahoma State did not.
Just filled it out and noticed I have all 1 seeds in my Final Four, which literally never happens. So no perfect bracket for me, just hope I get most of ‘em. Especially cuz Mrs. Cups’ school is a 1 seed…
Heh, I filled mine out this morning and had NO #1 seeds in the Final Four. 
I’m sure I’ll be making adjustments this week before the brackets are locked. That midwest bracket is a tough one. I always pick Kansas and Michigan State to go far, and they always disappoint. And of course I don’t want to see Duke make it out of that bracket. Something’s gotta give! (Auburn all the way?)
I can’t figure out how to join. I found the group. Where’s the “join” tab/button?
Right in the middle box. Note that the Final Four are off to the sides of the FF box.
ASU was actually ninth in the Pac-12, and I think it’s ridiculous they got in - you should at least need to have a winning record in your own conference, especially a weak one like the Pac-12 this year (they went 8-10 in conference and were bounced out of the first round of the conference tourney). I agree USC should’ve gotten in instead, though as a UCLA fan I’m not gonna shed too many tears for them.
Between the Pac-12 only getting three schools (two of which have to play play-in games) and St. Mary’s being left out despite being the #25 team in the AP poll, I really feel some good ol’ East Coast bias going on this year.
That was basically the argument I had against Oklahoma. Four teams tied for second-to-last place in the Big 12 with 8-10 records: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Baylor. Two of those teams got into the tournament. I would argue that none of them should have made it, but if any team was going to get in, it should have been OSU. Heck, they beat Kansas twice during conference play!
I’m guessing Lon Kruger must have naked photos of someone on the selection committee.
Yeah, I would have been happy if the Big 12 didn’t spend conference play all beating up on each other because they were all relatively equal. I’d agree with needing a positive record in conference play to make the Dance.
I’d be happier if ISU wasn’t that last place in the Big 12.
I just made my submission. All the misguided fools who didn’t pick the Florida Gators to win the championship will be kicking themselves in a few weeks.
Last call! Brackets will be locked when the first game starts this morning.
March Madness is probably the most treacherous road a gambler can travel. It’s basically six single elimination events in a row and, with virtually every kid out there shooting three pointers like he’s on automatic, there are a plethora of upsets every year.
If I remember my stats correctly, no 16th seed has ever knocked off the number 1 seed in the opening round, but I think that it’s inevitable that it will happen in the foreseeable future.
My wife has it happening twice this year, which gets me off the hook as worst decision she’s made.
It’s worth mentioning that the 16 seed that’s facing Kansas is the best 16th seed in the history of 16 seeds and is even rated higher than some 15s and one 14 in this tournament.
It basically means they’ll lose by 15 instead of 30. But still…
I had the tournament app do a “random selection” bracket just for kicks, and it had ALL FOUR #1 seeds going down to #16. The championship game was Florida State beating Marshall.
Obviously, I did not save that one. 
And a 15 has only beaten a 2 seed four times, and the last time was 17 years ago. 15’s advancing is almost a sure thing.
But yeah, I would never bet on the tournament (if I had money to bet).