The March Madness bracket of the sportswriting seminar currently has an unlikely winner: President Larry Arnn.
“In class we joked that with these pools, the person who wins them is the 12-year-old kid who doesn’t know that they’re doing,” said John Miller, director of the Dow Journalism Program and professor of sportswriting. “Then here President Arnn is, winning.”
Miller assigned the bracket to his class and invited Arnn to participate.
“My success in the bracket so far is owing to my pure genius…at taking advice,” Arnn said. “I asked the greatest expert of whom I have ever heard to help me, and this awesome person has done all the work. No one is more capable than my partner, Kyle Murnen’s mother.”
Murnen is a research assistant to the president.
This weekend, University of Kansas will face Ohio State University. If Kansas wins, Arnn will keep his first place position in the bracket. If not, freshman Matt Willis will take first place.
“It looks to me as if [Kansas] is going to win, and therefore, we are going to lose the bracket,” Arnn said. “But I know nothing compared to my experts. So, yes, against my own powers of observation, I fully expect to win.”
Ironically, Willis is loyal to Ohio State, but to win the bracket his favorite team must lose, Miller said. Arnn, on the other hand, said, “Go Buckeyes.”
The sportswriting class has 14 students enrolled. While they receive credit for simply participating in the bracket, the top and lowest scoring students receive extra credit.
Miller assigned the bracket not to encourage competition, but rather community.
“In a writing class it’s important to have a sense of camaraderie,” Miller said. “It’s good to laugh together and have a common experience.”
Senior Collegian Reporter Phil Morgan is currently in last place. He picked University of Michigan to beat Michigan State University in the finals. U of M lost in their first game, and MSU lost in the Sweet 16..
Miller also assigned a writing assignment accompanying the brackets asking students to describe the strategy of ordering their brackets.
“We had everything from the color of the team’s uniforms to statistical analysis,” Miller said.
If Miller teaches sportswriting again in the spring 2013 semester, he intends to assign another March Madness bracket.
“Maybe we won’t invite Arnn,” he said.
