The madness all began on Thursday, March 16th.
Everybody is watching basketball; whether it be on their Surface or phone, in the cafeteria, the quad, or even sometimes in class. Students follow the bracket with enthusiasm hoping they have picked the perfect one. For many, the tournament starts with a high. They get excited after getting a couple games right, hoping their brackets may be the ones to go perfect but as the games roll on, less and less people remain as cheerful until there are no more perfect brackets. This year especially there are not only no perfect brackets, but a lot of brackets that were busted early on. When Duke went out to South Carolina and Villanova, the NCAA defending champions, lost to Wisconsin, brackets were busted all over campus. After major upsets, students will often give up on their brackets feeling like there is no point to follow the tournament anymore. However, ESPN has created a solution to keep viewers interested in the tournament.
This Thursday, the Sweet Sixteen round begins.
Now, instead of picking from 67 games, fans must only decide on the winners of 15. The chances of predicting a perfect bracket are a lot higher and Bellarmine students love the fresh start. When asking Anthony Burns ’19 what makes the Sweet Sixteen bracket opportunity so appealing he said, “Because it gives me a second chance.” Moreover, the Sweet Sixteen bracket is almost always taken a little less seriously. Anthony recognizes it a smaller version of the whole tournament bracket. “The NCAA tournament bracket can get intense but Sweet Sixteen brackets are taken a little less seriously,” he said. Some students may only pick upsets while others may choose to pick the higher seed every time. Whatever one decides to do, the Sweet Sixteen bracket is sure to provide them with newfound excitement for the NCAA tournament.
Here at The Bell Online, we encourage you to fill out a Sweet Sixteen bracket and see if you can pick the perfect one. http://games.espn.com/second-chance-bracket/2017/en/bracket?ex_cid=TC2017_SecondChanceNCAAMNav&metricSource=ncaamnav.