The Awl Bracket Contest Update: The One Where Readers Find Out That The Tournament Is Still Going...

The Awl Bracket Contest Update: The One Where Readers Find Out That The Tournament Is Still Going On!

Believe it or not, the NCAA college basketball tournament is still going on! In fact, it’s a very exciting tournament that is currently taking place! Upsets (teams that are seeded lower and less favored to win, are defeating teams that are higher seeded and more favored to win!) are happening left and right! Here’s how crazy it is: Of the almost 6 million brackets filled out on ESPN, only TWO of them correctly predicted the Final Four (the four teams that make it to the semifinals) correctly. That is a very low percentage! I’m not sure if you’ll believe this, but none of the intrepid Awl sports fans were also unable to correctly predict the Final Four. Sad face! But we still have updates to be done!

VCU is in Richmond! People are really into talking about this for some reason. The “TWO TEAMS FROM RICHMOND” fact was one that was mentioned repeatedly and emphatically when Richmond and VCU both made the Sweet Sixteen. Not sure why people are so into Richmond, Virginia.

College players aren’t getting paid but their coaches are! The narrative of college athletes not getting paid is always hovers over the conversation, but it seems especially noteworthy this weekend when you consider that Kentucky coach John Calipari made $175,000 with yesterday’s win to send Kentucky to the Final Four. That makes his haul for this school year more than $4 million dollars. In comparison, the college players will make $0, maybe some free clothes depending on the school’s athletic sponsorships, and will be very seriously penalized if any other earnings from outside sources are reported. That seems a little unfair right?

But enough about real sports issues, what about The Awl’s bracket contest(?)! Curiously enough, someone who’s username is “Bryan H” has a bracket named “Shannon” and this person is in first. Isn’t that weird? What is this person’s real name? Is it Shannon? Is it actually a woman using someone else’s (Bryan H’s) account to fill out her bracket? What’s their relationship like? Dating? Newly exclusive? Are things going well? Too much too soon? Did he fill out her bracket for her? Is he still paying for everything? That’s nice of him. I hope he doesn’t expect anything in return though. That would be unfair to Shannon. Realistically they will be winning this whole contest (hopefully we’ll be invited to their wedding) because they have the highest point potential left, with Kentucky winning the national championship.

Otherwise it seems like everyone else is doing pretty miserably, not only do we all not have the relationship and companionship that Bryan and Shannon have, but we are also incredibly miserable at picking sports team winners. Adam and Edith, because of their UConn picks and with many thanks to Kemba Walker, are still in the mix to finish in the top 5 (which is good because we’re not giving anyone anything for finishing 2nd place and below). No other Awl pals are faring particularly well: “Deep Omega”, “KarenUhOh”, Lindsay Robertson, and “Boy of Destiny” are also in the mix, but, in case I haven’t made it entirely clear yet, this is all really Bryan and Shannon’s contest to lose. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we’re all rooting for them though.