Word: bracketologist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
This term first appeared in 1996, when the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that Joe Lunardi, a spokesman for St. Joseph's University and a college-hoops junkie, referred to himself as a "bracketologist" when projecting the tournament field. In 2002, ESPN.com featured Lunardi's "bracketology" predictions, and since then the word and Lunardi himself have become as ubiquitous a March presence as inebriated St. Patrick's Day revelers. Dozens of other "experts" have entered the bracketology game, and there's even a website that tracks the performance of the pundits, as if they were evaluating stocks or anything else of consequence...
Bracketology has expanded beyond basketball too. For example, a 2007 book called The Enlightened Bracketologist: The Final Four of Everything used the NCAA-tournament format to rank a wide range of minutiae, from cooking tools to hairstyles to animated characters. Bart Simpson outlasts Homer in a stirring first-round matchup, and in the video-game tournament, Tetris beats Zelda to take the title. No upsets there...
| 1 |