March Madness begins, as the “First Four” play in Dayton to see who will advance into the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament.Now, it’s no secret that sports fans are geeks. (Arcane knowledge, fannish clothing, cosplay, fan gatherings, undying loyalty even when stuff sucks, hatred of stuff that’s just a little bit different, fantasy battles, questionable hygiene, dining etiquette…)
Of course, there is that subtle Venn diagram overlap of “wonks” and “sports statisticians” which comes to the fore during March Madness, as millions seek to find the perfect bracket to win the adulation of millions (or at least your office mates).
I admit… I follow the trivia… and I like the underdogs, or, this year, the anteaters. (Sadly, the Banana Slugs of UC Santa Cruz are Division III.]
But what about other brackets? Why should sports fans have all the fun?
For your enjoyment, we offer the following Geek brackets:
Star Wars
Two different brackets, one of which is official.
Who will join Obi-Wan and Yoda as champion? StarWars.com has the official bracket!
Meanwhile, there’s a Jedi tournament going on, with each side to meet in the final! Jedi vs Sith!
The annual Geek Madness Championship, for gamers:
Nothing But Comics hosts an Image-specific tourney:
TheNBC! staff has taken the top 64 Image books hitting the stands in March and broken them up into four divisions:“The Horror” – Marlon Brando Division, Whimsy Sci-Fi Division, Nihilist Sci-Fi Division and The Kitchen Sink Division.
While USA Today plays “Heroes and Villains“:
To settle that last question, we need your help. We’ve set up a 32-character bracket, as part of Bracket Madness month, and each day you can vote for your favorite character to advance to the next round. Votes will be tallied at midnight eastern time, and the winning character will advance to the next round.
…and Cosmic Comix & Toys in Cantonsville, Maryland, offers “Cosmic Madness 2015“!
Muppet Madness gets some major corporate sponsorship from a casino:
[WHAT?! Big Bird v. Snuffie?]
The Disney Nerds Podcast hosts: MOVIE MADNESS 2015
Movie Qualifications: Only full length first run features released by Walt Disney Studios or Pixar qualify. No Direct to DVD or releases by other Disney owned studios. Ranking was determined by a Disney Nerds Podcast Team. This is YOUR personal favorite list, we are not asking for the most popular, the most artistic, the most awards, this is about the movie that you are most fond off for what ever reason it may be. What is YOUR favorite Disney animated feature!!
The WDW Radio Blog is sponsoring a tournament to select the best attraction at WDW’s Magic Kingdom!
Want to pit various fandoms against each other? Epic Nerd hosts a multi-franchise-fandom bracket!
Top seeds: Batman, Super Mario, Lord of the Rings, Star]Trek. [Hmmm…anyone want to fanfic that team-up?]
A nine-member selection committee of the biggest nerds and geeks I could gather (myself included) examined franchises from the genres of fantasy & adventure, science-fiction, video games, and comics.
After evaluating them using four criteria: modern popularity, commercial success, historic importance, and artistic value, each franchise was ranked and seeded.
…and in a similar vein, which property should be rebooted? (Or exhumed, in some cases.)
Go to UnderScoopFire and vote!
In another tourney, the finals! What is the Greatest Geek Moment in History? FastCompany spends less than a week running the tourney!
Star Wars, The Internet, Ada Lovelace, DNA?
Okay… You probably need a break to get some refreshments…
Need to get into the spirit? Perhaps some Kentucky rye to go with the Wildcats? It’s MASH MADNESS!
Or maybe some brewskis?
How about hues instead of brews?
Or maybe some rhythms to go with those hues?
The Victory Formation hosts the Final 68: The Worst Things in Sports. Media, Fans, Athletes, and Etcetera are the regionals.
Tired of basketball? Playing out a 2015 March Madness Bracket of All 30 MLB Teams
Insider Higher Ed takes the NCAA bracket, and determines winners based on brains, not brawn!
It’s time once again to fill out those March Madness brackets, and what better way to predict the winner of this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament than to compare how the teams succeed in the classroom?
Here’s how Inside Higher Ed‘s bracket works: to determine the winners, we first look to the Academic Progress Rate, the N.C.A.A.’s multiyear measure of a team’s classroom performance. When two teams tie, we turn to the N.C.A.A.’s Graduation Success Rate, which measures the proportion of athletes on track to graduate within six years. In the event of a G.S.R. tie, we then turn to the Federal Graduation Rate, a slightly different formula that the government uses to track graduation rates.
This tournament’s championship round was a nail-biter, going into double overtime, with the teams tying on both the A.P.R. and the G.S.R.
…and then there are the Big Brains at Critical Theory who ponder the great question of our age: Of philosophy’s many personalities, which is most likely to ruin a sporting event?
Is it Diogenes, who rushes the field, rambling “I’m looking for an honest man!” while violently shaking Bill Belichick? Can that compare to the $8 hot dog ruined by Jacques Lacan who reminds you “the phallus is in the bun,” or Karl Marx’s multiple aborted attempts to retake the means to produce “the wave” for proletariat revolution?
Comics Should Be Good returns for their seventh annual 2015 DC/Marvel Comic Character Tournament! This time, it’s cinematic characters, and actors!
Or maybe your prefer SUPER ANIMALS!
South Park has their “Bro Down”.
What’s the MOST 90s band? (Not the best, but the one which best represents the 90s in music.)
Girls in Capes has their Sisterhood tournament. Final Four!
For sports widows…. Leading men of romance novels:
Got a favorite program on National Public Radio? KPCC offers a tournament!
ComicMix once again highlights webcomics!
Which TV should come back on the air? Pushing Daisies, or Firefly?
Best TV Theme [This is really disorganized. “Scooby-Doo”? Which one?! Should have been better researched.]
…and my favorite bracket:
Great post and thanks for sharing.
Great article – Girls in Capes is my favorite!!
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