Top Gun challenge offers new way to enjoy March Madness

March Madness is here, and there’s a new way to enjoy it beyond traditional brackets. Brandon Funston introduces the Top Gun tourney challenge, which lets participants select individual players to form a roster instead of just filling out a bracket. In this fantasy-inspired game, participants draft players from teams in the tournament. The goal is to score more points than anyone else by choosing players whose teams go far in the tournament. As teams win and advance, players score points, giving more opportunities to rack up scores. Joining a Top Gun league is simple. Gather friends and have each person draft a set number of players. The recommended size is 8-12 participants, each selecting 8-10 players. Tracking scores requires just a spreadsheet, where results for each player are entered as games are played. Past years have seen exciting moments in the Top Gun challenge. For example, in 2008, one participant won after drafting Stephen Curry, who scored 128 points during his team's surprising run. Last season, another winner was boosted by Zach Edey's impressive 177 points. Funston shares that drafting can be strategic yet fun. He suggests using brackets to predict which teams will advance and targeting their top scorers. Historical data from the University of Illinois can help identify which seeds are likely to perform well. In the latest draft, Funston's top pick was Alijah Martin from Florida. His group of participants included friends both in-person and online, keeping track of scores together on a shared Google Sheet. This new approach to March Madness could offer a fresh twist for fans looking to engage with the tournament in exciting new ways.