Seen the bracket, yet? I’ll assume a bulk of you already have. If not, please click on the above link and view it’s splendor. Here’s how we came up with the version you see: we ranked each team (based on their merits*) 1 thru 28. Phil had an excellent playoff format that equally spread all 28 teams among 4 brackets of 7 each. In Round one the 1 got a bye, the 2 seed plays the 7, 3 the 6, and 4 the 5. The rest of the tournament unfolds in this fashion. I think the consensed 28 allowed for the most fair and balanced (heard that before?) playoff we could provide. I realize that not everyone will agree AND rematches happened. Unavoidable. If we moved one team to prevent a rematch, another would be displaced and so on. Where would the switching end? That would’ve been too confusing and even more subjective from where we began. I feel it correct to stick with the numbers.
That being said, I shamed myself. My mantra this year had been (in order of importance): league, team, then self. Whelp, blew that one. When I realized JG had a potential 3rd round match against the Eastsiders, I cried foul. Anybody but the GODFORSAKEN Eastsiders (FYI- my team’s record against Robert’s teams is 2-3-1, mind you Robert may have different numbers)! Simply put, it was the luck of the draw. I cried foul again….you see where I’m going with this. Ideas started wheeling around in my head about how we could switch this team for that team so JG and Eastsiders would only have met in the final 4. That’s more like it, right? All this perceived KVKL influence, and I couldn’t get one little team moved into another bracket. See what fear does to a person? It’ll turn you into Ann Coulter. Seriously. How much sleep do you think she gets in a night? Anyway, the points being, I forgot my mantra and that I wield little influence. I prioritized myself over the league and JG. For that, I apologize to whom it may concern. May my hubris rest in peace.
Here’s the great part: remember when I pined (June 24th) for new teams to break the final four? This year it is virtually guaranteed to happen. The most likely suspects would be teams from the Jazzhaus bracket and/or the Eldridge bracket. Let us rejoice at the occurrence of this phenomenon! It’s about time. This bracket is what’s best for the league. Period. See you on Sunday!
What are your opinions regarding the brackets? Looking forward to any match-ups? How do you think your team will perform? Who’s going to win this thing? And, so on…
*merits=(in NO particular order) overall record, division record, RPI, head-to-heads, and an abundance of subjectivity.