Using Sports Expert Advice to Fill Out Brackets is 'Bracket Plagiarism'

As we embark this week on one of the year’s most popular and anticipated sporting events, the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament or March Madness I have stumbled upon an idea or opinion that I apparently have been on the minority side of and never knew it.

Every year during the days that precede the beginning of March Madness I, like many millions of other Americans, find a bracket of the matchups and fill it out to compete with a group of others doing the same. I fill the bracket out without the help of television or Internet experts telling me who to pick and this has served me quite well in the past leading me to win multiple brackets. I’m not a risky bracket picker. I pick very few upsets, maybe fewer than most. Sometimes this bites me, but I’d rather be bitten by a 15-seed upsetting a 2-seed or a 14-seed upsetting a 3-seed than going for broke or against the odds and not having it play out. This is my strategy for trying to win. But, no matter what my picks are mine 100 percent of the time without any influence from other individuals. The only influences I’ll use are obvious things like seeding, records and other basketball statistics.

I believe this is the only right way to pick a bracket. This is a thought that until this week I believed that I shared with the majority of people who fill out brackets.

Apparently it’s not.

I posed the question of whether or not it was wrong to use expert advice to fill out a bracket on my sports podcast’s Facebook page and the majority response was that it’s not wrong to do so. I was shocked.

To me it would seem obvious that using experts on ESPN or YahooSports.com or any other sports television network or website would be essentially cheating.

Why do I consider this cheating?

It’s cheating because it’s passing off the knowledge or opinion of somebody else as your own. When you fill out a bracket in competition against other people it should be completely yours. Using advice from outside sources effectively makes any potential win or gain from your bracket not completely yours and thus isn’t as much of an accomplishment as winning your bracket tournament on your own accord would be.    

Some people may not give a damn about that, especially if they are playing for money (something I personally do not do). They may consider a win a win and using all means necessary to receive monetary gain fair game. I have no way of stopping people from doing this, barring getting my entire bracket group of people together the minute after the brackets are unveiled to make their picks immediately.

But, I definitely view using others’ advice to fill out your bracket to be a cheap and unfair way to compete in a bracket tournament. I liken it to Googling answers during a trivia competition. You are passing off knowledge as your own that isn’t. Some people may not agree with this comparison, but I don’t understand how they could deny it.

Using experts to help fill out your bracket is essentially plagiarism. You are using the ideas and thoughts of others for your own use. It very well may be considered commonplace when it comes to filling out your March Madness bracket to use outside help, but it’s wrong.

So, if you’re like I and you fill out your bracket on your own good for you. It’s the only right way to do so and if you win you’ll truly have all of the bragging rights and pride that comes with the accomplishment of beating everybody else. But, if you use outside help to fill out your bracket and win you don’t really have the right to gloat, because it’s just as much Jay Bilas’ and Dick Vitale’s and Doug Gottlieb’s and any other experts’ bracket just as much as it is your own. And, if you happen to win money doing that, well, those experts really deserve a cut.  

NASCAR's Punishment of Michael Waltrip Racing, Clint Bowyer Not Harsh Enough

NASCAR’s credibility and integrity were degraded on Saturday night during the final laps of the Sprint Cup Series race at Richmond International Raceway, the series’ final race before the 10-race Chase for the Championship playoffs. The penalty handed down by NASCAR was likely the most severe in its long history and yet it still seems unsatisfying and only halfway done.

With less than 10 laps to go in Saturday night’s race it appeared as if Ryan Newman was on his way to Victory Lane and a playoff wild card berth clinching second win of the season. It appeared as if four-time champion Jeff Gordon was going to drive his way into the Chase for the second straight season with a solid run at Richmond. It appeared as if Joey Logano would just miss the playoffs by finishing outside of the top 10 in the standings and with his one victory not good enough to clinch a wild card berth with Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman having multiple victories. It also appeared the same thing would happen to Martin Truex Jr., the driver of the Michael Waltrip Racing number 56 Toyota Camry. 

This is when a plan that had to have at least been somewhat pre-planned was set into orchestration by members of the Michael Waltrip Racing organization, at least led by general manager (and spotter with MWR number 55 driver Brian Vickers) Ty Norris and Brian Pattie, crew chief for the number 15 MWR car driven by Clint Bowyer.

With nine laps to go Bowyer’s spotter Brett Griffin said over the driver’s radio, “The 39 (Ryan Newman) is going to win. Well, that kinda sucks. Nine more (laps) right here. This transmission was followed by Pattie saying, “Is your arm starting to hurt? I bet it’s hot in there. Itch it.”

Bowyer responded to his crew chief with an “oh yeah.” Bowyer’s in-car camera caught him wildly jerking at his steering wheel in a fashion that no professional stock car driver would ever do. His number 15 Toyota then spun out bringing a late race caution that would completely shuffle the running order, the finishing order, the point standings and the playoff seedings. 

Through the late race sequence of pit stops Newman lost the race lead. Paul Menard would restart the race first. Carl Edwards would restart beside him on the front row. Edwards would eventually go on to pass Menard on the restart, that he quite possibly illegally jumped, and go on to win. 

The shuffling wasn’t done. 

On the restart of the race Bowyer hit the pits despite having little to no damage from his spin. He would also creep down pit road at an unusually slow speed, according to a clip from the race broadcast. Meanwhile, the other MWR team car Vickers restarted the race behind the lap car of Logano, despite being on the lead lap. Vickers would also come down pit road on the restart at the behest of his crew. 

This would be the piece of evidence that would later do MWR in.

The caution and resulting pits and loss of spots would result in Newman not winning the race, giving him the same number of wins as Truex Jr. The ensuing pit stops by both Bowyer and Vickers allowed Logano to gain two spots on the track thus re-passing Gordon for the tenth and final playoff spot in the point standings and ensuring that Logano wouldn’t have to use his win to grab the final wild card spot away from Truex Jr. In almost the blink of an eye Newman and Gordon went from playoff bound to wondering what the hell had happened. Truex Jr. was playoff bound because his team orchestrated his positioning. Logano, the luckiest guy in the sport evidently, was playoff bound because he was a pawn in MWR’s game. 

Fans instantly took to social media sites like Twitter claiming something fishy had taken place with Bowyer’s spin. Things would get even more obvious when the evidence of Bowyer’s and Vickers’ pit stops and final lap times came to light.

The next day NASCAR announced that it was going to investigate the happenings of Bowyer’s spin.

On Monday, NASCAR announced that they would be taking Truex Jr. out of the playoffs and placing Newman into the playoffs. They also announced an indefinite suspension for Norris. A 50-point loss in driver points for all three MWR cars (Truex Jr., Bowyer and Vickers) and a $300,000 fine, the largest in the sport’s history.

The deduction of championship points meant that Truex Jr. would fall behind Newman, thus giving Newman the final wild card spot. The deduction of points would have absolutely no penalty on Bowyer because he had already locked himself into the playoffs and points are reset for the 10-race playoff. Thus, the guy who began the entire travesty essentially got a non-penalty penalty.

NASCAR had decided to punish the organization rather than any driver (except they sure as hell ended up punishing Truex Jr. who really had no doing in any of his team’s shenanigans) because they said they didn’t have conclusive evidence that Bowyer had spun out intentionally, but did have conclusive evidence that MWR manufactured the ending of the race by pitting their other two team cars.

The conclusive evidence essentially came from Vickers’ confusion over why his team wanted him to pit. Vickers asked his crew if he had a flat tire despite not feeling it. Seemingly not wanting to pit Norris told the driver that he needed to pit because the team needed that one point, clear proof of fixing the finishing order.

Michael Waltrip Racing probably gets away with the entire thing if it wasn’t for Vickers’ dumbstruck response to being asked to pit so late as the race was going back to green flag racing and Norris having to explain to him why he was to pit.

NASCAR’s reaction and punishment toward MWR is frankly surprising to me, because I didn’t really expect for them to do anything at all. After the race on Saturday they claimed not to have seen any improprieties in how the race ended. Also a non-action from NASCAR wouldn’t have been unusual as the sport is only consistent in its inconsistency. NASCAR seems to make up and follow its rules when it pleases, something that seems to be commonplace in all forms of motorsports (see IndyCar and Formula 1 as other examples).

But, despite NASCAR’s punishment, that many in the press are calling “severe,” it doesn’t seem severe enough.

Why?

Because the guy who essentially put the orchestration into the playing field, Bowyer, is the only one who truly comes out of the punishment unscathed. And, because only half of the duo wronged by MWR’s actions (Newman) is given justice; Gordon still remains out of the playoffs, when he had a spot all but locked up.

Some are saying that Bowyer doesn’t deserve punishment because he was just following orders, but it comes down to the old “if you’re friends asked you to jump off a bridge, would you do it” cliché. Bowyer has to be held accountable for his own decisions and actions and know what’s right from wrong and immoral, but he hasn’t been.

NASCAR did well to punish the Michael Waltrip Racing organization and did right by putting Newman into his rightful place in the playoffs, but they failed immensely when it came to punishing the main culprit in the race fixing (Bowyer) and it failed to give Gordon the playoff spot that he rightfully earned.

NASCAR could’ve easily made everything right by also kicking Bowyer out of the playoffs and placing Gordon into the playoffs in his place, thus ensuring Logano, an innocent in the entire situation, would not also be punished. That is the main problem with NASCAR’s punishment, although I do think race owner Michael Waltrip, Pattie and Bowyer all should’ve been suspended for at least one race, with Pattie likely serving a longer suspension, for their parts in the act.

But, despite both audio and video evidence that Bowyer intentionally spun out his car NASCAR didn’t have “conclusive evidence.”

Other sports have banned athletes for life for fixing sporting events. NASCAR didn’t even so much as slap Bowyer on the wrist. Bowyer still has a shot at winning NASCAR’s premier championship. Wouldn’t that be damning for the sport? And, NASCAR gets to regain some of its integrity and credibility, but it’ll never be able to recoup all of it, because the punishment simply wasn’t harsh enough and frankly the sport didn’t have all its credibility to begin with from numerous past controversies.

Bowyer, previously one of the sport’s most popular drivers, however, will see some punishment in the public eye as he’s lost at least partial, if not complete, respect from many fans of the sport, as well as likely from some of his comrades in speed.    

  

NASCAR Should Ban Knaus for Full Season

At Daytona to start the NASCAR Sprint Cup season Jimmie Johnson’s #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was found to have an illegal part on the car. This really came as no surprise to me personally, because every time I hear of an illegal part on a car in NASCAR I immediately think of that 48 team and Johnson’s crew chief Chad Knaus. Why? Because Knaus is a major repeat offender and when I say repeat, boy do I mean it.

The punishment handed down by NASCAR last week: a six race suspension for Knaus and car chief Ron Malec, Johnson docked 25 driver’s points, the team docked 25 owner’s points and Knaus receiving a $100,000 fine is the crew chief’s ninth punishment from NASCAR for rules infractions in the last decade and his fifth suspension. Hendrick Motorsports has appealed the punishment and Knaus will be allowed to be Johnson’s crew chief until the appeal is heard.

After eight previous punishments, including four suspensions Knaus still continues to push the line and do something that is considered to be cheating in the sport. It’s very obvious that Knaus hasn’t learned his lesson from NASCAR, so now I believe NASCAR should take their punishments to the next level.

A six race suspension for Knaus along with a $100,000 fine and being docked 25 driver’s and owner’s points is a fairly big punishment in the sport. However, I think that NASCAR should have finally put their foot down with Knaus and banned him for the entire season. I think that an entire season’s banishment would finally get it through Knaus’ evidently concrete thick skull that they mean business when it comes to cheating and using illegal parts in the sport.

I’m sure down the line we’ll see Knaus punished once again for stepping over the line, and maybe then NASCAR will finally take the punishment to the next level. But, if I were in charge of the sport Knaus would be packing his bags right now for a very long vacation.