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2016 March Madness: Uniform Bracket

2016 NCAA bracket predictions based off of team uniform brands.

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Team chairs in Dayton, OH
Team chairs in Dayton, OH
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Nike is king when it comes to uniform suppliers.  Forty one teams will be wearing Nike uniforms in the tournament this year, and an additional 3 teams (Austin Peay State, Hampton and Southern University) will wear Russell uniforms with Nike footwear.  Fourteen teams are wearing Adidas, and ten are wearing Under Armour.

NCAA bracket

The Uniform Bracket was constructed based on three criteria (listed below), and was not determined through identifying the ugliest uniforms like last year's bracket.  Predictions were made up to the Final Four.  I'll let you guys decide who wins out of these teams.

1) Embarrassment

The number one priority when it comes to athletic wear is matching.  Some of my least favorite things are when people wear too many colors or multiple brands.  It is embarrassing for everyone involved.  Because of this, teams who had to play against the Russell/Nike teams automatically advance 3 rounds in this bracket.  These teams include Kansas, Oregon, and Virginia.

2) Cheering for the Underdog

Half of the reason we watch the NCAA tournament is to see the underdog win.  So I applied this principle to the teams' uniforms.  Under Armour provides the least amount of uniforms so these teams got to automatically advance two rounds.  Adidas only got one round automatically.  In later rounds the underdog brand rule was still applied, unless the matchup fell under special cases.

3) Special Cases

In some matchups, teams had to play against their same brand.  In this situation the higher ranked team won the matchup.  The underdog can't always win.

Only two of the Nike sponsored team wore Jordan uniforms.  These two teams (California, and North Carolina) were able to advance to the Final Four for wearing the GOAT's brand.