And the Winner Is ... Well, Sorta!

Yeah, yeah ... I know that the men's college basketball tournament has been over for quite a while now, but I forgot to post who won the 2011 Burley Bracket Battle's coveted trophy! But first, a few facts:

1. Camryn has filled out a bracket every year since she was one year old. We read her the mascots, and she picks the one she likes best. This year was a not a good year for her. Maybe next year we need to have a discussion that a #16 seed will probably never beat a #1 seed no matter how cute their mascot may be.

2. Jason was still watching basketball at 12:30 am the first day of the tournament. The ESPN announcers said that after the first day, out of over 5 million brackets filled out, there were roughly 300 perfect brackets and only 5 brackets that didn't get a single pick correct. One of those 5 brackets without a single correct pick happened to be my mother-in-law's! (I can post this because she had a good laugh about it, too!) In her defense, she did have a few other really good brackets that had a shot of winning it all for our group!

3. Before the tournament, I read an article about the Vegas odds on certain upsets and favorites. I was so serious about filling out a good bracket, I let this guide some of my choices. Did no good. Moral of the story: Making your picks based on cute mascots is probably a better strategy than following lame articles about Vegas odds.

So who was the final winner? Let's just say the Burley Bracket Battle did not end without its share of controversy this year. I filled out a total of 4 brackets. When the tournament began on Thursday, I realized my #3 bracket somehow did not make it into our group. I thought, "Oh well, no big deal. I picked too many upsets in that one anyway." WRONG! That bracket ended up being the WINNING bracket although no one could see it because I didn't get it into the group! Out of the entries that actually were in the group, Jason's was the "winner" but overall had less points than my bracket that no one could see. So, for the rest of the year, Jason and I get to fight about who the real winner is! Either way the trophy stays at our house for a year. Now to decide which closet I can stuff that trophy into until next year's tournament challenge ...