We know things have been absolutely nuts the last couple of weeks given the COVID-19 pandemic. We are certainly bummed that the NCAA March Madness Tournament was cancelled, but given the nature of that event and the risk, it was a good call.
Though most of us are cooped up at home, disappointed-yet-understanding about the lack of basketball to follow the next few weeks, we couldn’t abandon our plan to put together another tournament for our readers this year. If you remember, last year’s tournament took the quintessential foods and drinks of C-U and put them on one bracket. Black Dog’s Burnt Ends took the crown.
Honestly, we did not expect the response we got last year. It was awesome, and only possible because of you, our readers. How could we do it again? As an Editorial Board, we put our heads together and decided the way to make it even wackier and weirder was to go bigger. This is what we all need right now: to celebrate the memorable things that surround us in our community.
So, this year, we’re putting iconic things of C-U — people, places, foods, inanimate objects, ideas, and the like — up against one another in the ultimate C-U battle. The winner will be crowned as Icon of C-U for this year’s March Madness celebration.
Here’s the deal: We chose to not include iconic people that spent time here and eventually left. Instead, we focused on what things are thought of when it comes to C-U, iconic things that represent the community. We polled our readers across social media, and you responded with literally hundreds of options. We took what you provided and created this year’s bracket.
But where is this mysterious bracket, you ask? Well, everyone knows March Madness begins with Selection Sunday, which we are going to be rolling out on Twitter all day long. Follow us as we reveal each region; eventually you will see the entire bracket.
Once the bracket is formed, we will publish polls for voting, here, on the site, as well as across social media. Once the polls are collated, we’ll determine a winner for each match up and move the tournament along.
If you have questions, contact us at info@smilepolitely.com.
UPDATE: 1:56 p.m. The first region has been revealed (right click and open in new tab to enlarge the image). Follow along on Twitter to see the next region being revealed.
UPDATE: 3:22 p.m. Here’s the next region:
UPDATE: 5:08 p.m. Here’s the Bonnie Blair region:
UPDATE: 7:10 p.m. Here is the final region, and the full bracket below.
