How's Your Bracket?

I first published a version of this in March of 2021 for my column, Unpacking the Backpack. I've revised and updated it a bit.

“How’s your bracket?”

Every March that phrase replaces the standard “how are you, how’s it going, what’s up,” and it honestly leads to more authentic conversations than those other meaningless queries ever could. The coming of spring also brings about the NCAA basketball tournament where 64 college teams (or actually 68 with the advent of the play-in games - still a bit controversial in terms of seeing) try to dance their way to a national championship. But it’s more than a tournament, more than an athletic competition. It’s a nationwide interactive shared communal experience known as March Madness. And the password to join the party is “How’s your bracket?”

Filling out the bracket offers so much more than just a chance to predict basketball games and perhaps win the office pool. The bracket becomes an opportunity for personal connection, for it seems like March Madness is the one time a year everyone becomes a college hoops fan, much like everyone watches football on Super Bowl Sunday. The brackets are all about competition, but in the least divisive form you’ll ever find. The brackets and the NCAA tournament offer a chance for all people, even strangers in line at the coffee shop or in the ice cream aisle, to engage in a shared community experience.

Everyone is qualified to fill out brackets, and there are many systems for picking winners. My teenage daughter filled hers out by considering which college she’d be more likely to attend. In the college application game it was a fun way to explore places we’ve never considered. Drexel, for example, is a great business school in Philly, Gonzaga is a liberal arts mecca in beautiful Spokane, and Mizzou is the spot for journalism, including sports broadcasting. And who knew there were so many colleges in Pennsylvania? One year, former NBA star and TNT analyst Charles Barkley may have known, but he also openly admitted he didn’t have the slightest idea where Colgate is, which became a great source of good-natured ribbing from his broadcasting crew. This year everyone is asking what High Point University is, and where. It's in North Carolina, by the way. And it has quite an interesting story.

While anyone can win their pool, the chance of a perfect bracket is an astronomical one in 9.2 quintillion. From a sporting standpoint, the NCAA bracket of sixty-four teams and a win-or-go-home mentality is the ultimate equalizer and meritocracy. The tourney provides every school an equal chance to win, and the filling out of a bracket gives everyone a reason to care in a way casual fans aren’t always able. Bracketology is actually a thing - it’s the “science” of choosing your teams. The idea of the bracket has even expanded beyond the NCAA basketball championship, and there are now brackets for everything from Oscar-winning films to the best taco restaurants in Denver.

March Madness is a wonderful time of Cinderellas and bracket-busters, of Davids shocking Goliaths, and a time when hope springs eternal. Like spring training in baseball, March Madness is uplifting, a much needed feeling after our year of pandemic despair. And there are endless stories of life changing tournament moments. For example, 2008 found future NBA All-Star Steph Curry leading his underdog Davidson Wildcats to the Elite Eight and opening the door to one of the greatest NBA careers ever. Tiny Butler in Indiana became a national phenomenon because of its tournament prowess. And, few people had ever heard of Valparaiso University until the father-son team of Homer and Bryce Drew danced their way to the Sweet Sixteen in 1998.

Obviously, it's just a basketball tournament, but filling out a bracket seems more special. Common experiences are the essence of community, and our traditions are what Yuval Levin, scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, worries are fading from the American fabric. In his recent book A Time To Build about the importance of “recommitting to our institutions,” Levin describes the “durable forms of our common life” that maintain social connectivity. Among these are traditions and shared experiences that remind us we are more alike than different, and we can always find common ground, even if that place is simply in a gym cheering exuberantly for an obscure college from some far-flung part of the country to make a Cinderella run and crash the Big Dance.

So, how’s your bracket?