I hope everyone enjoyed the first two rounds of “March Madness” and had an opportunity to watch all the games they wanted to.

• I know a few of you may not have been working as hard as they could and may have had some of the games on in the background at work.
• I’ll probably have to take off the first two days of “March Madness” every year when I have a job someday because I won’t be getting anything accomplished.

Before I review my bracket and my competition with Tim Simmons, the creator of the Colorado Collegiate Chronicle, here are a few crazy facts to throw at you.

• Companies across the U.S. are estimated to lose around $17.2 billion in revenue and production because workers are watching the games and not doing what they are supposed to.
• To go right in hand with that, approximately $15.2 billion is bet on “March Madness” games throughout the tournament.
• It is estimated that cities that host “March Madness” games bring in roughly $300 million in extra revenue because of the tournament.
• Lastly, about $1.2 billion was spent on advertisement revenue for “March Madness”, while the Super Bowl does half for $600 million.

It is pretty amazing to hear those stats and to realize how influential this time is on sports and collegiate athletics.

As for my bracket, I picked 23 of the 32 games correct in the round of 64. Just two games under Tim Simmons, who predicted 25 of the first 32.

• A few games I would take back would be picking Kansas and Oklahoma
• As I filled out my bracket, I told my wife Sydney that I needed to correct the Kansas-Arkansas game because whoever won would beat St. Johns in the second round.
• My statement was correct, but I picked the wrong team.
• I thought that UConn would have a letdown in the first game, and that was the wrong decision with the defending champs.

I, along with most of the country, picked Clemson to win, and that just isn’t going to happen when they score 13 points in the first half, but it was amazing to see them claw their way back and make it a game to only lose by two. The other games I picked wrong were Utah State, Xavier, Vanderbilt, VCU, Liberty, and North Carolina.

The round of 32 has just finished, and I am proud to say that I have fought my way back and taken the lead with 35 games correct and Simmons, the CSU Pueblo historian, with 34.

• I was efficient with eight out of 12 games correct, even with my poor second-round Kansas and North Carolina predictions.

• 

  I loved Drake’s story with Bennett Stirtz and the D2 history. I had them winning over Texas Tech and thought that would be the small Cinderella run for an 11-seed.

• The only other game I got wrong was Wisconsin, and I was surprised that BYU got them.
• In picking Colorado State’s path correctly and Simmons advancing the Rams to “Sweet 16”, I have the lead.  In a way, I wish he was accurate, as the Rams were up to the task but got beat on a buzzer-beater to end their dancin’.

If you are interested, here facts and figures to digest.

Seeds Remaining
1 – Auburn, Duke, Florida, Houston
2 – Alabama, Michigan State, Tennessee
3 – Kentucky, Texas Tech
4 – Arizona, Maryland, Purdue
5 – Michigan
6 – BYU, Mississippi
10 – Arkansas

By Conference
SEC – 7 (Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee)
Big Ten – 4 (Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue)
Big 12 – 4 (Arizona, BYU, Houston, Texas Tech)
ACC – 1 (Duke)

Here is my bracket along with Simmons (BFishInc).

• I have six of the eight “Sweet 16′ matchups correct, and Simmons only two.
• It is looking good for me.
• I hope your brackets keep looking good going into the Sweet 16.