The dream of a perfect bracket died for about 99.9 percent of people on the first day of the NCAA Tournament.
That’s according to Yahoo, which measured the devastation among its brackets after 12 seeds Arkansas Little-Rock and Yale along with 11 seeds Wichita State and Gonzaga pulled off upsets Thursday. Although, if you look at point spreads instead of seeds, Wichita State and Gonzaga winning shouldn’t have been all that surprising.
Holding your bracket to such unhealthy standards isn’t good for you anyway, as perfection through one round is unrealistic.
Really though, aspiring for perfection is a lesson in futility, considering only once in the 17 years Yahoo Sports has hosted a tourney challenge has anyone gotten through the first round unscathed. That would be the currently immortal Brad Binder.
And you know this Brad Binder guy has been super annoying about it since he did it in 2014. “Oh, you got 28 out of 32? That’s pretty good. Did I ever tell you about the time I went 32-for-32 on my bracket during the first round? Because I did that.”
There’s nothing following up that perfect bracket guy’s story, so I’m guessing he didn’t win any pools that year. Let that be a lesson if your bracket feels busted entering Day 2; as long as you have your Final Four intact, you still have hope. If your bracket isn’t perfect, it doesn’t mean it isn’t still beautiful. Don’t let these people out there shame you into feeling bad about your bracket. It could be a late bloomer.
(Yahoo)
