Last year I revealed to the world my habit of picking a “Baptist Renaissance” bracket for each year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. The basic idea is to pick the winners based upon how closely each school can be connected to the subject that I occasionally teach: Baptist History. There are some exceptions, but in general, schools with a religious origin outrank secular schools, schools presently demonstrating some spiritual vitality outrank schools who have long ago departed their religious origins, Protestant schools outrank Catholic schools, and Baptist schools top the entire chart. I’ll let you guess how well this normally matches the actual results of the basketball tournament.
For instance, here’s his breakdown of the Texas v. Minnesota game:
Texas v. Minnesota: Although I used to love to listen to a Minnesotan friend of mine utter the words “Golden Gophers” in a way that only a Minnesota accent can do, there are more Southern Baptists in Austin than in the entire state of Minnesota, I’m willing to wager. Longhorns get the pick.