90's Youth Life Podcast Special: 1990s NCAA Tournament

College basketball, at least at the highest levels, is on the horizon. Whether Division III will end up getting played, and thus my annual, gradual destruction of my vocal cords will commence, is still very much up in the air. And so, since this is normally the time of year I'd be getting started, I needed my college basketball fix. Thankfully, Geoffrey Clark had me covered.

You may remember him as an occasional contributor as part of the COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, but also as the host of 90's Youth Life, on which I have appeared twice before. I was on earlier this year to simulate a 1990's NBA playoff tournament, and two years prior when I ruined an average Major League shortstop for him forever. But recently, he had reached out about wanting to do a college basketball tournament in March Madness style, and I happily agreed.

We had this whole thing set up, where he had 79 teams that I was going to have to pare down to 64, then get into a good old fashioned March Madness bracket, and I had this whole big idea to make it a D-III style bracket... but unfortunately, my simulator only had 25 teams of the 79 available. So, we adjusted, and we made it work.

And this, dear readers, is the result of our work. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com; box scores are provided below.

90's Youth Life Podcast Special: NBA 1990's Championship

With sports as we know them completely on pause, the state of Illinois under a shelter in place order, and my sanity starting to go, I need something to get me through The Quarantine of 2020. Fortunately, Geoffy is a lifesaver.

You may remember Geoffy from his occasional appearances on Confessions of a Sportscaster. You may remember him more as the host of 90's Youth Life, a podcast about all things 1990's. In particular, you may remember when these two worlds collided in the summer of 2018, when I ruined an average Major League shortstop for him forever as we simulated out the 1994 MLB postseason that never was.

So it was hard to say no when Geoffrey pitched another episode idea to me as we go back to our formative decade, this one arguably more up my alley, and definitely up his. We grew up in the era of the Jordan Bulls Dynasty, and Geoffrey had the idea of doing an all-90's postseason. I had originally wondered specifically about all the champions of that decade, but Geoffy thought bigger, and I ultimately have to say, better.

He pitched to me a standard playoff field of 16 teams (eight from each conference), limiting each conference to one representative from each franchise, which makes sense because otherwise the Bulls will cannibalize themselves. He constructed the bracket and went back to the old best-of-five first round model, with best-of-sevens the rest of the way, including the old 2-3-2 format of The Finals. And with his part done, I went into the lab, did the work, and found the All 90's Champion.

After the jump I will post all the box scores from every game along with some details. As always, all simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. And now, for your listening pleasure... my second 90's Youth Life appearance.

90's Youth Life Podcast Special: The 1994 MLB Playoffs Simulation

I was a radio guy in college. So it's kind of a surprise that, other than a random podcast with a Nintendo forum something like ten years ago that who knows if it even still exists anywhere or not, I am a novice at the podcast game. Fortunately, I know people.

I've talked up the immortal Geoffrey Clark on here before. He's a classmate and friend from my North Central days, a blogger for Chicago Bulls Confidential, and he is also the host of the 90s Youth Life podcast. He's talked up a number of topics from when we grew up, including topics like the McDonald's Beanie Baby craze and the career of Ken Griffey, Jr. with another WONC alum we overlapped with.

So a couple weeks ago, I got a text from Geoff regarding my favorite tool on this blog, WhatIfSports. He'd been introduced to the tool through Confessions of a Sportscaster and was talking about how addicting it was. It was through that discussion that he brought up the lost postseason of 1994 due to the strike. One thing led to another and, well... I was a guest on a podcast.

In it we run through how the 1994 Major League Baseball postseason could have played out had the playoffs been the leaders in the standings when play stopped. After the jump I will post links to the box scores of the games, but if you want to keep the element of surprise... take a listen.