SURVEY SAYS: Who's Your Pick for the NCAA Tourney?

This week I asked readers who was riding atop their grid sheet.

Well, if the tournament itself is as close as this week’s results, it will be March Madness indeed – but not much in the way of surprises.   The top two vote getters were the University of Florida Gators and the Ohio State Buckeyes (one Columbus-based respondent explained, “You don’t have a choice in this town.” ), with each team drawing roughly 19% of this week’s totals.   Not far behind were the of Kansas Jayhawks ( 14% ), with the of North Carolina Tarheels (one of these expressed a sentiment common among UNC fans: “I always go with North Carolina, followed by ‘anyone but Duke .’ ) and of Oregon Ducks tying for fifth place, with 9% each.   Of that top five, all are top seeds in their brackets, except for Oregon, a #3 seed.

Also cited by respondents this week were (in alphabetical order); Georgetown, Memphis, the University of Albany, UCLA, University of Wisconsin, and Wright State.

Significantly – more than 16% of this week’s respondents were looking past college basketball (or trying to).   Most were just interested in other things (or not interested in basketball – as one reader said, “Basketball Smasketball.”   Another said, “March what?   All I know is, this basketball stuff is screwing up my regularly scheduled TV viewing.”   Still another noted, ” Team?   I thought March Madness was a mini series based on a romance novel to be shown on Lifetime.” ), but a significant minority had their eye on Opening Day (baseball, for the uninitiated).

But this week’s Editor’s Choice goes to the reader who said, “The only March Madness I am following is the stock market.”

Thanks to everyone who responded to our survey!

Editor’s Note:  It’s always fun to look back at prior year surveys – the 2006 version is online  HERE