Every year, The Post-Searchlight holds a March Madness Bracket Challenge.

We all get so excited looking at the blank brackets and the incredible possibilities that we predict over the next few weeks. The college basketball playoffs are overflowing with energy, and it’s fun to join the party. Even some of the employees here who don’t pay attention to college basketball love diving in and scribbling down who they think will win all the games.

Some will do a little research, pinpoint the likely winners based on records, matchups and other criteria. Others (chiefly, me) find the best method is to turn their brain off and fill the bracket up without thinking about the matchups much at all. I’ve been able to predict a few first and second round upsets that way, but things usually get a little hairy deeper in the tournament. Other methods are to pick the teams based on school colors, mascots or if their name sounds similar to the last name of their freshman year roommate.

Of course, we’ve all been wildly off the mark every year we’ve done this. Those first few rounds can be brutal when teams you never planned to make it past the first round suddenly get hot. I was lucky enough to win our office’s competition last year, but that was only because I was the only person with a team in the championship game (Michigan).

This year, it appears Duke is the most popular prediction to win the Big Dance. The Blue Devils are talented, and feature the best player in college basketball, Zion Williamson. I think Duke will face off against rival North Carolina in the championship game. To get there, Duke will beat Michigan and North Carolina will beat Purdue.

I know, I know, I’m wrong. Or… I could, just maybe, be right. That’s the whole idea.

Unfortunately, nobody has ever been 100 percent correct with their bracket. The odds seem steeper than winning the lottery. I’m convinced that if someone out there ever does predict their bracket perfectly, it will be proof that time travel is real.

Best of luck with y’all’s brackets! Hopefully, they won’t get busted too quickly.