So, really, March is mad in our house. My family has our own bracket challenge every year.

Wait. If you don't follow college basketball in the US this might not make any sense.

Feel free to keep reading.

No guarantees that it will make any more sense by the time you are done, but you never know.

Anyway, my family has it's own bracket challenge that has gone on to include some of the kids. We have 27 or so participants this year. It's rather fun.

So, Faramir and I filled out two sets of brackets together. Faramir's is the serious one. He knows his teams and we pondered and filled out and all is well.

My brackets? We had a ton of fun with.

We did the "dark alley" option. This means, if you shoved the two mascots at each other in a dark alley and had them fight it out, who would win?

It's not working out so well for me.

See, the fighting Irish (have you seen Far and Away?) were supposed to be able to shoot the grizzlies.

Oh wait, it was messed up long before that. See, really the fighting Irish guy was supposed to be able to take on the Seminole and win, although this one probably could have gone either way.

In another bracket, the lion was supposed to crush the bulldog.

But you know what? Not only did the bulldog beat the lion, he also beat the panther.

It is a puzzlement.

Between the above losses, pretty much the whole south side of my bracket is toast.

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Thankfully whoever was supposed to beat the peacocks.

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And I did make one rather noteable exception to my rule.



This? is a buckeye. It's a freaking nut. And it goes all the way to the final four in my brackets. Why? I'm not really sure. Maybe because anyone who picks a nut to be it's mascot is gutsy and deserves it.

Granted the nut is inedible and poisonous, I think, but still. It's a nut.

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I picked the Blue Devils to take the whole thing, maybe because I grew up a Red Devil. I think that growing up with such a mascot as made me really wonder why people pick the things they do for mascots. I know there are stories behind all of these things, but really? How do you make a peacock look like something scary in a dark alley? I'm not getting it. I always look for strong ones, and somehow Boston Terrier's aren't really it.

But the Cougars beat up on them--just like they were supposed to. Then were super good about beating up on the bulldogs.

So, how do you think they are going to fare against the gators?

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Okay, so maybe you don't really understand any more now than you did when you started, but you all had mascots, did you not?

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Think a pedigree chart with your name in the middle and one parent out either side and. . .heck. . .I'll just link you to one so you can see.

Here's the national average.

Basically you pick who you think is going to win and hope that you have the least red on by the time you are done.

I have lots more red on mine than that one does.

Lots.

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And, for the what it's worth department, I think that the cougars, when they are all playing, not just Jimmer-the-amazing, are a formidable team.

That's BYU for you un-mascot initiated.