Extra Birthday Madness!

Let the madness begin! For those of you in the midst of all of this NCAA basketball hoopla, you'll know what I'm talking about. As of tonight, March Madness officially begins. The teams have all been ranked...let the games begin! Now I'm sure you're wondering why in the world I would care about watching a bunch of teams I don't know anything about play games for the next couple of weeks. Well, I'll tell you. There is an extra birthday on the line here.
So here's the scoop. A couple of years ago, Gabe suggested that we fill out a bracket together. Now I can assure you that I had no idea what I was going to do when I needed to fill out a bracket. I follow Illinois basketball, and that's the extent. However, there was a twist. We weren't going to fill out the bracket in the traditional way.
Here are the rules:
1. Each player gets to pick 8 teams
2. You earn points according to each team's ranking. Therefore, if you pick a #1 seeded team, you only get 1 point for every game they win. If you pick a #10 seed, you get 10 points for every game you win. If you pick #1's you probably won't get as many points, but they'll play more games. But if you pick higher numbers, you might get a lot of points out of a team that only plays 2 games in the whole tournament. Make sense?
3. At the end of the tournament, whoever has the most points, wins!

And the prize is....an extra birthday! You get dinner out, cake, and presents. Oh sweet!

So needless to say, my bracket is filled out! And I'm in it to win it! Gabe's parents thought this was such a good idea, that they join us in the festivities every year. Right before Thursday night, we all pick our 8 teams (in separate rooms, of course...we don't want our opponents knowing what teams we're picking) and then reveal our picks and strategies before the games begin. I'll keep you posted! And I'll be sure to let you know where I went to eat when I win my extra birthday!