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Brackets are on everyone’s mind as we head deeper into the second week of March Madness. But with one of the craziest Sweet 16 fields in years already halfway through, all we can think about is planning our pizza order for the upcoming games.
And with that, we welcome you to Pizza Pandemonium, in which we ask you to vote on the best pizza toppings of all time. Pizza innovation has certainly come a long way in recent years, but for our purposes, imagine a base pie (crust, sauce, cheese) and be prepared to build from there.
The Sweet Sixteen round of our Pizza Pandemonium saw the field cut in half — pun intended. For the first time in recorded history, there has been an 8-over-1 upset in our March Madness-style bracket. Eighth-seeded Jalapeños won a tight matchup against No. 1 seed Mushrooms in the Gatherer Region to move on to face No. 5 seed Spinach, which narrowly topped — another pun intended — No. 4 Olives in the closest Sweet 16 matchup of the tourney.
Chalk held in the Hunter Region, with No. 1 seed Pepperoni dominating No. 8 seed Anchovies by 97.4% of the vote. However, oddsmakers pegged the king of meat toppings as favorites at 98%. If you held Anchovies tickets, congrats to cashing in on disgusting small fish.
Elite Eight voting will take place on our Cover 3 Podcast Twitter account with links embedded into the article below. Check back with CBS Sports as eight toppings become four, and pretty soon, we will have our national champion. Place your bets now.
See the updated bracket and vote in the Elite Eight round of Pizza Pandemonium below.
Pizza Pandemonium bracket
Voting for every round round is being held via tweets from our Cover 3 Podcast account as embedded below.
Hunter Region
(1) Pepperoni vs. (4) Bacon
(1) Pepperoni: The unquestioned GOAT of pizza toppings is a staple, especially for parents who want to add a little meat to their kid’s overly simplified cheese pizza. Generally speaking, if you order any pizza, pepperoni is the default meat of choice.
(4) Bacon: The selection committee caused an uproar within the pizza topping world on Selection Sunday. Bacon has a storied history on top of pizzas, and that résumé caused the public to view the versatile meat as the most underseeded topping of the tournament.
(3) Sausage vs. (2) Extra Cheese
(3) Sausage: Sausage can be installed with a variety of flavors, which paid off in the first round when it dominated Meatballs 86.9%-13.1%. That confidence will be huge going into a tough Round 2 matchup.
(2) Extra Cheese: When diners don’t want to be creative, what do they do? Just load some more cheese on the pie. Occam’s razor could be at play here. Sometimes the simple solution is the correct one.
Gatherer Region
(8) Jalapeños vs. (5) Spinach
(8): Jalapeños: There is a reason that the selection committee had a big debate over the spicy sensation — seriously, we had a big debate about this — and their first-round matchup showed why they belong in the tournament. Could they be this tournament’s Florida Atlantic?
(5) Spinach: Popeye would be proud that his food of choice sprung the minor upset in Round 1. It’ll have to top Cinderella in the Elite Eight, which will be more challenging than previously anticipated.
(3) Peppers vs. (2) Onion
(3) Peppers: The milder pepper on the Scoville scale relative to their Jalapeño counterpart dominated Tomatoes, setting up a massive matchup in the Gatherer Region after top-ranked Mushrooms went down in a stunner.
(2) Onion: Onion survived a challenge from No. 7 Pineapple in a sloppy affair. It can’t have a lot of confidence after narrowly escaping the clutches of one of the most controversial toppings in the field.
Read the full article here
