This is going to be a very interesting bracket for a number of reasons:
- The Tampa Issue - We live in a polarized world, and in this election year we once again turn to Florida as a battleground for the future. This polarization extends to our hallowed league, where Tampa was included in 8 of the 15 submissions. Of those 8, it was listed first in 6, and second in the other 2. The remaining 7 submissions showed their intelligence by not including it at all. If this bifurcation holds, Tampa will win each of its matchups 8-7 and we'll end up sweating our asses off and not being able to say "gay" this August. It's not that simple though.
- The Spite Factor - Ajay has made it clear that he will be voting for Tampa despite having no intention to attend the draft. While this says a lot to me about Tampa's appeal as a city and how it is viewed among minorities (Alan, come on), I can't hate the strategy because I did the same for Dewey Beach (still in the bracket!) back in 2014. There is an additional spite factor to consider, as Big Poppa Joseph will also not be attending the draft. He abstained from submitting locations, but as a league member he still gets the right to vote if he so chooses. If he votes against Tampa, we have a split. Additionally, there are a number of West Coast cities that have high seeds just to spite Nick, including Los Angeles (submitted by Tampa fans Bennett and Mejia), Las Vegas (submitted by Tampa fans Ajay and Marco), and Lake Tahoe/Reno (submitted by Tampa fan Gutman). Just saying that if Nick wants to vote, we could easily have a double spite situation.
- Week Zero - The typical draft weekend is Week 0 for college football, which explains why Dublin and Lake Tahoe are on the list. While either location would in all likelihood be amazing, I'd probably prefer to have the draft on LDW and go to a Week 1 game.
- International Matchup - Either Dublin or Tel Aviv will move on to the next round, which might be a first for a non-Canadian city. Also, Montreal got essentially no love (from myself included), which is weird because it's probably the best draft city we haven't been to yet.
That's all for now, may the best city outside of Florida win!
