It’s that time of year again, folks—the time when Katie + I quickly attempt to catch up with the rest of America and put together our collaborative March Madness brackets. As explained in previous years, though, since we know not a thing about college basketball, we determine our brackets based on what we do know—the effectiveness and (more often) lack of awfulness of the team’s logo.
Most collegiate logos have to balance a very fine line, appealing to students and parents of students as a refined, fastidious institution of higher learning worthy of inordinate amounts of cash…while at the same time coming across as badass, slam-dunking, high-fiving, energy-drink-chugging cowboys or bulldogs or wildcats or blue-and-gold rooster-monsters. Which is probably why many colleges have multiple logos for multiple uses/audiences. “What’s that, ma’am? You don’t want your daughter attending a school with an imaginary imp on all of its merchandise? That’s crazy-talk. Give us our $40,000.”
This year, rather than write out our Cliff’s Notes on the reasoning behind our decisions (or lack thereof), we’re instead presenting to you what is likely a wildly boring video of Katie + me deciding the brackets on the spot, based on branding effectiveness, text-image balance, color scheme, potential placement + predicted impressions, and cuteness of cat involved in logo, obviously.
More worth the time and also related, John Oliver‘s recent rant on March Madness and the economics behind the NCAA and college sports, also below.
Click through to a larger image of our full brackets to the right.
Go, Rams!
