Busted Brackets and a Second Chance

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Dakota Canzano, Staff Reporter

Every March, the hype heightens as people begin to fill out their March Madness brackets. Everyone dreams of the perfect bracket so they can gain full bragging rights and a possible pot of money. But what do you do when your potential “dream bracket” gets busted by upsets?

You get frustrated. But you try again.

In the last few years, many websites such as ESPN.com have offered second-chance brackets.

Picking the teams starting at the Sweet 16 gives you a second chance to redeem yourself and your trashed bracket.

On Friday night, the UMBC Retrievers became the first No. 16-seed in NCAA Tournament history to beat the No. 1-seed, the Virginia Cavaliers with a score of 74-54. According to NCAA.com, only an estimated 2% of 30 million digital brackets filled out nationally picked the upset.

While that almost assured that every bracket was busted, it turns out that about half of the brackets took a hit after the first game of the tournament.

When No. 7 Rhode Island beat No. 10 Oklahoma, NCAA.com reported that only 45.5% of brackets were still perfect in their own bracket contest.

Throw in No. 11 Loyola-Chicago over No. 6 Miami in the first round and No. 14 Buffalo over No. 3 Arizona, and you pretty much know your bracket is… busted. In other words, the seeding in this tournament doesn’t seem to matter; although the teams have a range of skills, anyone is good enough to win on a given day.

I don’t know who you had in your Final Four, but my picks were: Purdue, Kansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Not half bad. But I’d like a second chance, too. That’s why I’m filling out another bracket.

Comment below and tell us who you have in your “second-chance” Final Four.