Good morning!  Hope you all had a chance to take in some basketball yesterday.  Keeping it real, a lot of the games were not particularly close and thus not particularly interesting, but there were a few good ones in the mix and some noteworthy upsets.

First and foremost, congrats to Frate Train, who currently sits all alone atop the leaderboard.  Here are the top ten going into Day 2:

(note that Dr. Pimple Popper doesn't count, hence the Top 11)

On the other end of the spectrum, MIZ-TIDE Both Will Probably Choke currently holds the spot for worst bracket. Sadly for many of us, he got at least half of that right.

Speaking of the Mizzou game, despite the final score, that was one of the more interesting games of the day, with Mizzou clawing back to make it close towards the end, but Drake continued to answer, pulling off one of the upsets on Day 1.

It was not, however, wholly unexpected -- 127 of you picked Drake, and it was a pretty popular upset pick in the celeb brackets I entered.  So, not exactly a major upset.  Consistent with things we know about Drake, it was more of a minorrrrrrrrrrrr upset, I guess...

Speaking of upsets, McNeese pulled off the most surprising of the day, holding off a late run from Clemson after dominating pretty much the entire game.  The REAL story from the McNeese game, however, is the story of Amir "Aura" Khan, the student manager who became an internet sensation by leading the team into games whilst rapping and wearing a cartoonishly large boombox around his neck:

Aura has developed such a following that he's actually inked 3 NIL (the first student manager to do so), and the McNeese cheerleaders were even wearing socks with his face on them:

He's submitted his bracket publicly, I've entered it, and you can track your performance again him, other notable public figures and so-called experts, and different picking strategies.  They are in all caps and have a "zero" for the tiebreak to make them easy to recognize.  As always, these brackets do not count and are just for fun.  Notable extra brackets include:

• Sports figures like Charles Barkley, Tim Tebow, Andy Katz, Gabby Douglas, and Tyrod Taylor

• The Mascot Bracket (where picks are based upon which mascot could beat the other in a fight)

• Air Bud, The Rizzler, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and TikToker Jordan Howlett

• All Chalk (which always takes the favorite) and Coin Flip (which was literally decided by flipping a coin)

• Dr. Pimple Popper, Jimmy Fallon and shirtless comedian Bert Kreischer

• President Obama, Blue States (favoring blue states when possible) and Red States (favoring red states)

I've even included Nickelback, so you can hate them in an entirely new context!

And because the SEC was perceived to be the strongest conference this year (putting 14 of 16 teams into the tournament), I've included a bracket that always takes the SEC team if available to see if that perception holds true.  So far, it's firmly in the middle of the pack.

Dr. Pimple Popper currently rules the roost among the JFF brackets, matching her strong opening performance from 2024.  Bugs Bunny has turned in a surprisingly solid performance for a fictional character, sitting in 33rd place, beating around 90% of you.  Even The Rizzler has outperformed around 2/3 of the field!

Not only that, but the ultimate measure of futility -- the Coin Flip Bracket -- stands at 177th place, meaning that more than a third of you have failed to outperform pure, dumb luck.  Certainly makes all of that time spent researching your bracket seem worthwhile, right???

That's it for today!  If you haven't already paid, please do so IMMEDIATELY.  Links to my Venmo and Cash app are on the front page.  Also, remember that you can always follow the standings in real time here.

Hope you enjoy another day of basketball!

Jamie