Stupid Bracketology

Here's the dilemma I've faced around the 3rd week of March every year for the past 20 years or so - I have an NCAA tournament bracket I have filled out that, if successful, will not only earn me a monetary reward but also bragging rights for being the smartest person in the world and I want that bracket to be wrong. And not just slightly wrong, but completely, embarrassingly wrong.

The thing about tournament brackets is you pick the better teams to win because, well, they're better and, thus, they give you a better chance of winning. So you fill out your bracket with your Dukes and your UConns and your other traditional powers making the final four because that is the rational route. But the problem is, at least for me, once the games tip off I'm rooting for the Southerns and Wichita States and anyone from the Mountain West to knock off the big dogs. It's like I fill out my bracket and then I take a big dump on it. I'm watching these games and screaming for the underdogs and people are like, "Dude, why are you pulling for Pacific? Don't you have B.C. in the Sweet 16?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I do, but a) I hate B.C., 2) Pacific is a 14 seed, and c) Go to hell." How can you not root for the underdogs once this bohemoth gets underway, even at the expense of your our bracket and college basketball acumen?

For me, the bracket starts to take away the magic of the tournament. You want the expected to happen in order to win, but what makes the NCAA tournament the best sporting event of the year is the unexpected. That, or I'm just bitter that I had both Syracuse and Seton Hall in the Sweet 16, but I think it's the whole "magic" bullshit I just wrote. Oh well, GO Shockers!

UPDATE: Anyone else have Iowa in the finals? Anyone? Dammit...