Poison Ivy: How Harvard Destroyed My NCAA Bracket

At about 11.15pm central time last night, my NCAA bracket along with millions of others, went up in flames.

All because of one team: Harvard.

ESPN posted last night on Twitter that 95% of the brackets they received all picked New Mexico to beat Harvard ... including mine.

But Harvard had other plans. The 14th-seeded Crimson sent the third-seeded Lobos home with their tails between their legs, defeating them, 68-62,  and thus killing the dreams of millions of people like me in the process. Yes, I was among the throng who made the mistake of thinking New Mexico would come to play. I should have known better. When has a Steve Alford coached team ever lasted beyond the first two rounds? I had them in the Sweet 16. Wrong!

Kudos to Harvard. They did what Southern couldn't do yesterday, and that's finish off a top seed. This is was the Crimson's first win ever in the NCAA Tournament, an historic (yes, an is used before historic; this is Harvard! Queen's English, you know) victory for both them and the Ivy League. On the flip side, what an embarassing loss it was for New Mexico!

They were going to be the it team in the tournament, and now they're another poster child for major upsets in Big Dance annals.

Not that they don't feel much worse than we do, but still: Thanks a lot, New Mexico! Rarely have so many brackets been blown up in one fell swoop.

And at the hands of student-athletes with an IQ high enough to actually understand the RPI formula.

I'd like to see how their brackets are faring.