Bad sports, good sports: Time to fill out those basketball pools

Posted on March 15th, 2010 by Alan Spoll

You know what’s amazing? Sometime this week, almost everyone you know will fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket. Male, female, young, old, basketball fan, non-basketball fan, it doesn’t matter. The numbers are staggering. I don’t have the research on this, but I have to imagine that it is the sporting event that pulls in the most non-fans this side of the Super Bowl.

I have been filling out tournament pools for as long as I can remember. My results have been mixed, but mostly poor. I have had the occasional high finish, although I have never won outright. The thing that really amazes me is how often the winner is someone who seems to know absolutely nothing about college basketball. How is this possible? I know there is an awful lot of information out there to be had, so people could go online and find picks made by some expert and use those, I guess. A lot of pools have rules that reward risky picks, and that could help people who don’t know very much. Still, winning one of these pools is not like picking who is going to win the coin toss at the Super Bowl. There are 63 games that need to be predicted. This stuff is not easy. The fact that a person who watched no games this season has a shot to win is why so many get involved.

The tournament itself is amazing. For a college basketball fan, there is nothing like it. Back in my first-ever Bad Sports, Good Sports column, I talked about the trips my friends and I used to take to Las Vegas for the opening weekend of the tournament. The scene in the Luxor sports book during the games was something to behold. Even though most of you will never experience that, the fun of filling out a pool and watching games throughout the month is not a bad substitute. It’s no wonder that so many take part.

Happy March Madness, everyone.

Good sports, continued:

2) Administrators at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in D.C. have done something that makes them unique in this country: they have hired a woman to be the head coach of their varsity football team. 29-year old Natalie Randolph, a science teacher at the school, has been named to succeed Jason Lane, the former coach. Randolph used to play in the National Women’s Football Association.

3) Kevin Mawae, a center who is currently an NFL free-agent, was a unanimous selection to continue as president of the NFL Players Association. Mawae, most recently of the Tennessee Titans, has been in the league for 16 years, has made the Pro Bowl eight times, and has been the union president for the last two years.

Bad sports:

1) The hype will come to an end. There has been a lot of talk about a matchup between the two greatest female horses currently running, Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra. Plans had been in the works to have them both run in the Apple Blossom Invitational in Arkansas next month, but Rachel Alexandra’s loss in a race on Saturday caused her owner to call off his horse’s participation in the event.

2) Talk about scary. In the first lap of Indycar’s first race of the season on Sunday, Marco Andretti ended up underneath the car of Mario Moraes after a multi-car crash that propelled Moraes’ car on top of Andretti’s car. Andretti was unhurt, fortunately.

3) Star soccer player David Beckham will be unable to participate in the upcoming World Cup after tearing his Achilles’ Tendon on Sunday in a match against AC Milan.

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Alan Spoll

Alan Spoll is a software quality assurance director from the suburbs of Philadelphia where he lives with his wonderful wife and children. He has spent his entire life as a passionate fan of the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, Flyers, and Penn State. Recent Phillies success aside, you will understand his natural negativity. Follow me on Twitter - @DocAlan02