Royals Review 2018 NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge

For the first time in my life, I won a March Madness bracket challenge last year, in my work pool. It was exciting. It was enthralling. I gloated in emails afterwards. I correctly picked the University of North Carolina to win it all, and my overall bracket was 98% correct. And I did so without following college basketball or watching a full game.

The reason for that is simple: I don’t have a huge stake in a team, at least one that is beyond bandwagon fandom. My parents both have Master’s degrees from Iowa State, and varying family members brings that total up to about a dozen degrees, so the sheer amount of effort and money poured into that institution has rubbed off on me. But I’m a William Jewell graduate, man; they’re NCAA Division II. I wasn’t born in Kansas or Missouri, but I’ve only spent a grand total of three years of my life in Iowa. I am renting a dog in this fight, and I can let someone else deal with it if, say, the Iowa State Cyclones are butt.

This year, the Iowa State Cyclones were butt. They’re not in this tournament. But you know what? I still feel strongly about my chances this year. I am a WINNER. And I only know slightly less than I did last year.

Thankfully, you can challenge me, and any and all other Royals Review readers and writers who choose to participate, in the 2018 NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge.

1. Go to the ESPN Tournament Challenge page
2. If you don’t already have an ESPN profile, sign up-it’s free and only requires an email account
3. Under the ‘My Groups’ tab click ‘Find a Group’ and search for ‘Royals Review - 2018’ or http://games.espn.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2018/en/group?groupID=2218011
4. Enter the password of royals50years and join the group

You can then, under ‘My Bracket,’ choose your teams until the first round of 64 begins. IF YOU ARE ARE A COMMENTER, NAME YOUR BRACKET BY YOUR ROYALS REVIEW SCREEN NAME UNLESS YOUR ESPN SCREEN NAME MATCHES YOUR ROYALS REVIEW ONE.

Last year, we had 153 entries, a full 47 more entries than 2016. These are the winners from last year:

• GOLD MEDAL - royalbuzzkill | j_lingenfelter
• SILVER MEDAL - Annemal_2-VS | GoBoilers2000
• BRONZE MEDAL (TIE) - Bigcliff7 1 | Bigcliff7 and SportingKC | SportingKC
• HONORABLE MENTION - raf1004 1 | raf1004

Happy Bracketing!