Easiest Job Ever

From this day forward, you can call me Dr. Reid, Head of Bracketology for the Blogger universe. I have no Ph.D, haven't played basketball since my freshman year of high school, and haven't talked to a female in the past year. So, given those previous statements, I believe I am equally qualified as one Joe Lunardi to be called a Bracketologist. Of course that final part about talking to women is false. I talk to my mom all the time, much like Mr. Lunardi does.

This guy has the easiest fake job in the world. He makes Mel Kiper look like little Alby Einstein. Mel Kiper actually watches game film, talks to coaches/players, does his homework and makes his predictions far more advanced than filling out a bracket.

Lets look at the info:
1- There are 65 teams invited to the NCAA Tournament each year. There are 31 conferences with automatic bids via winning their tournament title. This leaves only 34 'guesses' for Lunardi.
2- Typically, the BCS Conferences (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac 10, SEC) are good enough to get at least 3 teams into the tournament. Further math will show that this leaves 22 'guesses' at most.
3- Out of these 22 remaining slots, we'll say that 3 more teams from the BCS come in...this now gives 19 spots open.

So, Joe Lunardi is basically picking 19 teams. This is without saying that conference tournaments aren't always won by a team already included in the first 31 or that these tournaments whittle down the pool of prospective teams down even more. By the time the conference tournaments are at the semi-finals, most of those teams are already in the Dance.

The hard part about Lunardi's job is finished by Saturday night on Selection Weekend. Arguments can be made like looking at RPI's, Strength of Schedule, Record against RPI Top 25, or Record against Top 25. Sure, he does this. Every analyst does. But everyone thinks Lunardi is super because he averages 32 of 34 at large teams a year. It's made out to look harder than it really is. When it comes down to picking those last 4 teams, he has a pool of maybe 6-8 to pick from.

I've done all that without mentioning his brackets that he posts on ESPN. Those are just crazy. The NCAA has developed the 'pod system' for placing the top 16 teams in the tournament. Lunardi ignores this when filling out his bracket. He's stopped doing this, but he used to place 2 teams from the same conference in the same sub-regional, thus setting up a second round match-up.

Lastly, I feel the need to mention what just flashed across the ESPN ticker. There was the prediction of his 'Probable #1 Seeds' in which he listed UConn, Oklahoma, North Carolina, & Pitt. No shit...way to go out on a limb on that one Joe! That's saying that those 4 teams will win out the regular season and more than likely win their conference tournament. Just sack up one time and say that one of those teams will lose a game and will fall from the top. This prediction is just as bad as every fan in America claiming that their team would make the playoffs if they had started today. I'm guilty of it, but it's stupid. If that were the case then the St. Louis Cardinals would have won the 2005 World Series over the Chicago White Sox because they had one more regular season win.

I could easily finish off this post with my bitching about this weeks polls. However, I've given up on caring about the polls. The coaches poll is filled out by student managers. The AP is full of garbage beat writers that plug their local team too much. It's just not worth caring about. The only thing I worry about is the Illini playing well enough to secure at least a 4 seed and play relatively close to home in the first round.

Since it's Monday, 24 is on shortly. Time to see who Jack Bauer kills tonight.