Joe Lunardi’s 2012 Bracket Accuracy

This is the 4th year of the Joe Lunardi Bracket Analysis series. To view past editions click on the following links: 2011, 2010, and 2009.

The increase in site traffic has been almost entirely on the interwebz linking to previous breakdowns of famed bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s projected NCAA tournament brackets. I started doing this back in 2009 not to beat up on Lunardi, but to shoot down ESPN’s gushing praise of his excellency for “PICKING 64 OF 65 TEAMS CORRECTLY OMG”. Well, it’s 68 teams now, but there are still 31 auto-bids and roughly 20 at-large “locks” from teams as high as Kentucky all the way to the likes of West Virginia and Purdue. So in that sense, his job is really to pick the bubble teams and then sort out the seeds.

With comment input and my own need to improve this system, I have put in the following criteria:

- Teams in the tournament. Duh.

- Teams correctly seeded.

- NEW: For teams incorrectly seeded, a +/- system will be used. Example, if Michigan was a #4 seed when he had them as a #3, that means a +1. If Alabama is an 8 seed and he has them at #9, then it’s -1.

- NEW: First Four matchup predictions.

DOUBLE TYPO ALERT: Matt Hasselbeck Throws for 3236 Yards and Kenny Britt Plays for Green Bay

ESPN does these pointless game simulations using Madden NFL 12. Apparently the Baltimore Ravens will hang on for a 26-20 win in Tennessee. It’s the ridiculous box score of the simulation that caught my eye more than their two sentence recap.

ESPN’s New MNF Deal to Include Wild Card Game

THIS GUY, Jon Gruden, will be calling Monday Night Football games in the National Football League for a long time. According to THIS GUY, James Andrew Miller, posted information on Twitter about ESPN’s new deal to air the primetime staple, and THIS GUY says it is gigantic.

ESPN to Bombard You With Unnecessary Hype

If there’s ever a copy-and-paste title, it’s this one. Tomorrow night is Jurgen Klinsmann’s USA coaching debut as the men’s side battles Mexico in a friendly at Lincoln Financial Field in Philly. ESPN is providing English-language coverage and have decided this is akin to a World Cup qualifier. I know it’s a rivalry and all, but what they’ve done is a little too much.

SportsCenter’s Sage Steele Enters “Dirty Talk” Hall of Fame

When you want to describe how to get a hanging squirrel off of you, this isn’t one of the better phrases. (Video after the jump)

Joe Lunardi’s 2011 Bracket Accuracy

A significant bulk of my site traffic today has come from college forums linking to a year old post on Joe Lunardi’s “bracket predictions” accuracy. I can’t even wait until Monday to post this so I’ve got his final projections on my screen and as the seeding is announced on CBS I’ll provide you with instantaneous results. Unlike the previous posts I am leaving out the placement of the teams in each region/pod. I’ve added “Teams in tournament” because of the expansion as well as First Four projections.