Fat Guy TD Leads To Fat Guy Celebration... And Then Some...

((HT: Mercer Bears))

Never let it be said that Mercer Bears head coach Bobby Lamb peeks in the back of the playbook...

It was Fan Appreciation Day in their rout of Warner yesterday and there was a very large eligible receiver that got a TD and took the Fat Guy Celebration next level...

Evidence below...


The HQ is indeed impressed with Thomas Marchman's cartwheeling abilities...

Why March Madness is Better Than The College Football Playoffs

How awesome is March Madness...or what's more commonly known as the NCAA Basketball Tournament?

Tiny Mercer University from the Atlantic Sun Conference beats the legendary Duke Blue Devils of the ACC. North Dakota State of the Summit League beats Oklahoma from the Big 12. Wichita State of the Missouri Valley Conference is a #1 seed and Dayton from the Mid-American Conference beats Ohio State from the Big 10.

None of this could ever happen in College Football.

EVER...

No, these aren't marquee teams, they aren't household names and they don't draw viewers like an Alabama or Oregon in Football, but they draw pretty darn well in their own right.

That's why March Madness is more fun. Much more fun.

You know who is going to be in the College Football playoff. At least one, if not two SEC teams, a team from the Pac 10 and a team from the Big 10. And they haven't even played yet.

None of the teams mentioned in the second paragraph could EVER win College Football's national title. But they could in basketball.

Don't think for a minute Wichita State can't compete with a Kentucky or Florida or any ACC team in Basketball. They can. And they can win.

Remember the Shockers? Yeah, they were in last years Final Four.

Think Mercer could beat Duke in Football? Not a chance. But put the Senior laden Bears on the court with a Duke team chock full of Freshman. When the pressure is on, the seniors pulled away and won.

In basketball, experience usually wins. In basketball a good team beats good individual players. You don't have to have five 5-Star recruits to be successful in basketball.

College Football is all about size and depth. You want to know why the Alabama's and Oregon's of the world win year in and year out? Their 2nd and 3rd team players are better than your starters. They roll out 3 teams of 6-5, 300 lb linemen and three waves of 230 lb running backs who run a 4.4 40 yard dash.

That matters.

March Madness is more fun because it's more random. If you get in, you, in theory have a chance. If you get in, chances are, if you shoot lights out and your opponent doesn't, you could win.

Not in Football. No team from the Sun Belt could beat a top level SEC team. (Yes, we know Lousiana-Monroe beat Auburn a couple years ago and Ga. Southern beat Florida last year.) Your Sun Belt champ will NEVER be in the College Football playoff.

But the Sun Belt champ could win March Madness. Or at least win a couple of games. That will never happen in the College Football Playoff.

I submit to you this: Sure, College Football has bigger names and gets more publicity, but what is more fun to watch? An SEC team vs. the Pac 12 for the College Football championship or an NCAA Championship game featuring an underdog like a Butler, a school that doesn't even play football?

Seriously. How often will the football game be more dramatic? How likely is the football game to have an upset?

If you watch March Madness, it could happen in any game....

Here's a breakdown of Friday's Tournament in Raleigh, NC  from CBSSports.com:

More from Spokane, Washington:

And The Zinger From Macon For Mercer

((HT: Macon Telegraph))

The Mercer win over Duke blew up plenty of brackets around the planet...

So, it was the Telegraph's turn to show the world what it meant...

Ain't it cool...

NCAA Upset: Mercer Beats Duke, No Really, They Did (Update at bottom)

God bless the NCAA Basketball tournament, in College Football, games and upsets like this would never happen.

The Mercer Bears from Macon, Georgia made tons of casual College Basketball fans happy and sad at the same time after they beat the mighty Duke Blue Devils 78-71 in their NCAA Tournament opener.

The Atlantic Sun champs kept the game close all the way through and actually began to pull away from a very cold shooting Duke team as the game progressed.

We should note that as happy as many fans who hate Duke are, there are now tons of NCAA Tournament Bracket challenges that can be thrown away because quite honestly, how many people picked a #14 seed to beat a #3 seed.

The Bears were led by Jakob Gollon with 20 points and the team shot 56 percent on the game. By contrast, Duke shot 35 percent.

Here's the ending...
((HT: NCAA March Madness/SnappyTV))

Check out Mercer's Kevin Canevari's celebration dance:



CBSSports.com gives us reaction from Mercer coach Bob Hoffman and others:


***UPDATE***---We feel like this should be mentioned: We give Duke grief for being the New York Yankees of College Basketball, but it should be noted that coach Mike Krzyzewski took time after the game to go to the Mercer locker room, congratulate them and say "If we got beaten, at least we got beaten by a hell of a basketball team". Nice...