"Media madness bracket" lets you choose things like Joe Buck vs Jenny Dell, Bill Simmons vs Rick Reilly, Brent Musburger vs Tara Lipinski/Johnny Weir

USA Today's thebiglead.com has created an NCAA "March Madness" tournament style bracket pitting members of the sports media against each other, with polls to determine the winners.  They've broken it down into four "regions," sports talk, television, broadcast, and writers (obviously there is a lot of potential overlap).

I think this is a phenomenal idea, but I feel like they didn't put together the best possible field.  There are several names I don't recognize, and many big ones who've been left out.  The bracket does however do a spectacular job at forcing you to make tough choices (on more than one occasion I wished I could simply vote "no"), none more difficult than Tim Tebow vs Ray Lewis.  Despite my affinity for mocking Tebow, whenever I see Ray Lewis' face on TV I get annoyed that his colleagues can talk to him with a straight face and not say "Hey Ray, why don't you tell me about that time in 2000 when you and your buddies killed two guys?"

If I had to pick an early favorite, I really like Charles Barkley as a #2 seed in the television region.  My dark horse is Scott Van Pelt, the #6 seed in the sports talk section.  When Barkley or Van Pelt takes home the title, remember you heard it hear first.  And if Grantland's "Song of the Millenium" is any indication, I've got a knack for these things.


Follow @LucidSportsFan