Joe Lunardi, The Godfather Of 'Bracketology,' Is Barely Better At Picking Brackets Than His Dog

Joe Lunardi is one of the most brilliant minds in college basketball. He’s so knowledgeable about the game, he invented "Bracketology," which is the process by which people project which teams will earn certain seeds in March Madness.

Lunardi spends an uncanny amount of time studying all the teams that have a chance at making the tournament. While his projections have no bearing on what the NCAA Selection Committee decides to do, he’s usually spot-on with most of them.

You would think that a guy who becomes so familiar with all of these teams would also do a fantastic job of filling his own bracket. Apparently, that’s not the case.

Lunardi entered a bracket pool with his eight other family members, and his dog, Sam. As of yesterday, he was only ahead of Sam in his family pool.

Imagine that. Perhaps the world’s foremost authority on projecting who gets in the tournament had no idea how those teams actually do once they actually start playing the games. If that’s not indicative of how unpredictable March Madness is, I don’t know what is. At least his national champion pick - the Arizona Wildcats - is still in the hunt.

To be fair to Lunardi, hardly anyone picks a bracket that doesn’t have some major flaws. Heck, my national runner-up pick - Kentucky - lost to Oakland in its first game. My bracket didn’t make it past day one without a significant bust. March Madness does make a fool out of all our basketball "knowledge." 

But still, you’d think a guy with Lunardi’s expertise would be a bit higher in the family rankings. He's going to need some major luck to climb those rankings.