Year Of The Upsets?

NCAA March Madness 2016 (image via BaltimoreSun.com)

In the sports world, there is something special about February and March. February is the month that the NFL Superbowl happens and March is tournament time for NCAA Basketball.

March 17 was the beginning of the NCAA Tournament and sports lovers everywhere stopped what they were doing just to watch all the madness unfold — thus giving March the title of “March Madness.”

During March Madness, people not only watch the college basketball games, but they also participate in the “Bracket Challenge.” During the Bracket Challenge, people have up until the first NCAA Basketball game tips off to fill out their brackets. They fill out their brackets based on how far they think each team will get in the tournament. The rounds include the Round of 64, Round of 32, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four and the Championship Round.

The best (or worst) part about these tournament games is the fact that anything can happen — and well, anything did happen this year. During the Round of 64 (the first round of the tournament), there were at least seven upsets. For those who may not know what an upset is, it is when a lower ranked team beats a higher ranked team. And there were seven lower ranked teams that beat higher ranked teams during the first round. An upset can be either good or bad depending on how you filled out your bracket. If you went the route of choosing all highly ranked teams then your bracket is definitely busted.

Out of those seven upsets, only one had an impact on everyone that participated in the Bracket Challenge. That upset was Middle Tennessee’s (a 15th ranked team) 9 point victory over Michigan State (2nd ranked team). That win by Middle Tennessee destroyed brackets everywhere because no one saw that upset coming and everyone had Michigan going all the way to the Final Four. Some people even had them winning the NCAA Tournament.

As the Tournament progressed there were more teams that surprised everyone like Yale. Yale (a 12th ranked team) managed to pull a win out of nowhere against Baylor (a 5th ranked team). It was the school’s first tournament win. I don’t think anyone had Yale beating Baylor on their brackets. March 27, 2016, another team shattered brackets. Villanova was the team that forced many people out of the Bracket Challenge because they beat Kansas to move on to the Final Four. Kansas was another popular team that many have picked to win the NCAA Tournament — including myself. Besides Michigan State’s loss, Kansas has to be the biggest surprise.

With the Final Four round beginning on April 2, it’s going to be interesting to see which two teams would meet in the championship round. It would be cool to see a 1 vs. 2 match up involving the University of North Carolina (1) and Oklahoma (2). Maybe it would be even better to see an upset happen in the championship round. The only team that would be able to upset anyone is 1oth ranked Syracuse. That would be something to see if Syracuse managed to win the NCAA Championship.