2018 NCAA Tournament: Bruins Nation Bracket Challenge Elite Eight Update

With the second weekend of the 2018 NCAA Tournament in the books and Final Four weekend coming up, let’s check in to see who’s winning this year’s Bruins Nation Bracket Challenge.

As usually seems to be the case after the second weekend of play, there is a new leader at the top of the board.

Last week’s second place bracket has taken over the top spot. That’s good news for “Josh” and his “Different Steve - Same Result” bracket, but the bad news is that his tournament winner Duke bit the dust on Sunday by losing to Kansas, which means that Josh will max out at 91 points, making it highly unlikely he will win this year’s challenge. Sorry, Josh.

In second place with 72 points is “slanty ¬ ¬”, but, like Josh, his or her tournament winner is also out. In fact, this bracket had Virginia and, at this point, cannot earn any more points. As a result, it’s pretty unlikely to hold onto a spot in the Top 5.

There is a three-way tie for third place with 70 points. One of the third place brackets belongs to “Fly0nwa11” and “Fly0nwa11’s Ridiculous Bracket.” This is the bracket which has the most possible points remaining. That because this bracket has Michigan and Villanova advancing to the title game with Michigan winning it. This is the only bracket which has Michigan winning. So, if the Wolverines win the title, then “Fly0nwa11” will likely be our winner.

But, right alongside that bracket is the “Svedish Chef.” After the first weekend, the “Svedish Chef” had the most possible points remaining and “Svedish Chef’s Boss Bracket” still has the third-most possible points behind “Fly0nwa11” and one other bracket. The “Svedish Chef” has Villanova winning it all, meaning there’s a good likelihood that the “Svedish Chef” could win the bracket challenge.

The third bracket tied for third-place currently belongs to “Jordan” and the “Euler+Alford” bracket. “Jordan” has Villanova advancing to the national championship game, but Virginia as the winner. As a result, “Jordan” can only score 16 more points, which won’t be enough to win without a lot of help.

There is another bracket to look out for, even if it is currently in 42nd place. That would be the “Tank for not alford” bracket owned by “Jack.” While “Jack” only has 57 points right now, this bracket has Michigan and Villanova going to the title game with the Wildcats winning the title.

So, if both the Wolverines and Wildcats both win on Saturday, either “Jack” or “Fly0nwa11” should win. But, if Villanova wins and Michigan loses Saturday, then the “Svedish Chef” is the likely winner.

What if Kansas wins? Well, then we might end up with our first tie as there are two brackets which will score 110 points if Kansas wins Monday night. Currently, these two brackets are tied for 20th place, but because they both have Kansas winning the title, “29th” and “Chris” could still win this year’s challenge.

Since Yahoo does not seem to have clear rules on how they employ the tiebreaker, unless Yahoo suddenly comes up with some, I am adding some tiebreaker rules in advance of Monday’s title game. First, one point will be awarded for whichever player’s predicted score for Kansas is closest to the the Jayhawks actual score and one point will be awarded to the player who more accurately predicted the actual point spread. Second, if they are still tied, whichever player has correctly picked more games right over the course of the entire tournament. Should a tie still remain, we will then look at who has more correct games in each round until a winner is determined, starting with the first round.

Here are the full standings after the Elite Eight.

Go Bruins!!!