Bracket Season Continues

It’s only appropriate that I discuss seasonality on the first day of Spring.

We compartmentalize our lives and roll through the year with expectations, processes and traditions associated with the weather. Get a chill in the air and we immediately get ready to strap on helmets and shoulder pads. When the ice melts, as they’d been hoping for on the East Coast (to no avail), attention turns to the baseball diamond.

Here in Los Angeles, you don’t get much in the way of weather adjustments. As a result, the culture turns to television pilot “season” and award “season.”

Turning back to sports, we also couple the fantasy element to the season. The arrival of players and coaches to training camp in late-July signals the beginning of the long fantasy draft campaign. We’re currently smack-dab in the heart of fantasy baseball efforts and, of course, millions of people have sequestered themselves for some period of time this week to become “instant experts” and lobbed out a bracket (or twelve) for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

And, to that end, you can make a bracket out of anything. Here are examples of a sitcom bracket, an assessment of “coolness” by school and even one for Middle-Earth.

There’s another opportunity to extend Bracket Season. Keep it in the college realm and celebrate the tradition of “The Frozen Four.” Northwestern Mutual has put together a tournament competition for Facebook, tapping into the social media opportunity.

I would be remiss if i failed to offer a simple note of advice. The state of Michigan has dominated the competition with 19 championships.

Sign up and “Shoot the puck!”

You’ll be able to make selections on Monday, right about the time that you’re ripping up your dismal 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Bracket.