With March Madness in full swing, Penn students fill out brackets, devise spin-off competitions

The Penn men's basketball team is not participating in the NCAA tournament this year and the women's team just experienced a devastating lost in the first round, but many Penn students are still excited for the competition.

March Madness, the colloquial term for the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, is a single-elimination competition among 68 top basketball programs from across the country.

One of the most time-honored traditions of the season is to craft a bracket of picks to win each game of the tournament. 

The students in the fourth floor halls of Speakman and Butcher in Ware College House created such a challenge amongst themselves.

Engineering freshman Ransford Antwi, who lives in the fourth floor hall of Butcher, said the “[bracket challenge] will be a fun way for [his] hall to compete against each other.”

He said that he is looking forward to watching the games over the next couple of weeks with his hallmates, around 15 of whom created brackets for the hall's pool.

Some college houses are also throwing watch parties for the tournament's championship game, which will take place on April 3.

College freshman Adam Alghalith, one of the board members for the Ware College House Council, said that the council is “definitely planning to throw a watch party for the final game with Chipotle or pizza for food.” The watch party will likely occur in the lobby of the McClelland Express dining hall, located in the center of the quad.

Rodin College House is also planning a watch party for students living in the building, although details have yet to be finalized.

In the spirit of the season, The Daily Pennsylvanian has even gotten in on the game, creating the Penn Bracket Challenge, pitting various on-campus clubs and student organizations against each other in a bracket format.

However, many clubs not included in the Penn Bracket are joining the newly created "Bracket of Sadness."

On Monday, WQHS Radio, Penn’s student-run radio station, will unveil a competition consisting of 16 clubs that were not included in the Penn Bracket Challenge. College junior and President of WQHS David Reinis said that the popularity of one of his Facebook posts sparked the idea.

“I posted on Facebook jokingly about how WQHS wasn’t included in the [Daily Pennsylvanian] bracket, and it got over 4,000 views,” Reinis said. "Then we thought we could make a fun, spinoff bracket."

He noted that this is an additional way to include clubs on campus in the challenge while also promoting WQHS.

“Who knows, maybe we’ll do this again next year,” Reinis added.