Understanding why it's called March MADNESS

This bracketing business is really quite stressful. Let me give you a little taste of what I, and the rest of corporate America, are dealing with right now. I'm in three (3) March Madness pools. The most important of these is the M3 2008 pool (which is the annual Morris competition blogged about earlier). So there are 4 regions, each with 16 teams in them. And I'm supposed to figure out which team wins the whole thing (not to mention who wins and loses every game along the way)?

Feeling slightly overwhelmed (knowing the pressure is on with my family, and I can't fail) I logged on to ESPN last night and watched all of the "experts" discuss these teams to get a little clue where some upsets might lie, or who has a chance at winning it all. I was feeling pretty good about where my bracket was headed and then I get to work this morning to find an article on my homepage about how to design your bracket. Number 1 tip: Don't listen to the experts! So, looks like I'm back to square one.

It really shouldn't be this complicated, and I know that. Of course I know that! But, when you've got something to prove to the other 12 members of your pool (not to mention the other two pools I'm participating in), you start to overthink things. Stats show that Number One seeded teams NEVER all make it to the final four, so I'm trying to throw in a Number 3 or a Number 2 somewhere. Then they're yelling at me telling me I've got to take risks in the second and third rounds. Alright, so let's knock out this Number 2 team with a Number 4, let's take this Number 6 to the Elite 8. Ahhh!!

And thus, the stress. Because even if you don't take chances, watch some big upset come along in the second or third day of the tournament and then your delegated winner of the tournament has just lost on day three. But then you see the sun peeking through the dark clouds when you start to remember how your cousin Jill in 2007 was out of the tournament after two days because she didn't realize the little numbers next to the team names were their seeds, or how your mom (also in the tourney) liked to pick her teams based on their colors or their mascots, or where she had lived. The chances of my bracket losing to those two is nearly impossible, but the chance exists. And I will do whatever it takes to ensure that my standing improves from last year. I've just got to get better than 6 of 12.

So, leave me alone for the next 22 hours, 41 minutes, and 19 seconds, (countdown to tip-off, duh!) because I'm going to be a mess. And you know you don't want to interfere with a Morris in the middle of a competition. So maybe, we should rethink that and you can get back to me at the end of the tourney.