Should I be cheering for the underdogs? Or for my bracket?

Not that my bracket is worth all that much anymore. When Butler beat Syracuse yesterday, that left me only half of my Final Four picks. Half of my championship game plus my Champ (Kansas) were already gone.

So: I really should be cheering for the teams I have left. Right? The teams I picked. Because I want the best bracket possible, even if it is already in shambles. Even if I’m doing poorly, I still want to do as well as possible.

But…I sure like cheering for the underdogs. I really wanted Cornell to win last night (despite their win over Wisconsin).

Of course, I had Kentucky losing in that game, anyway (to Wisconsin), so my bracket doesn’t suffer there no matter who wins.

Plus, considering how badly my picks have done so far, there’s virtually no chance of me competing for any top spot in any pool I’m in. So why not cheer for the underdogs? Why not cheer for the Big Ten schools (plus Northern Iowa, an honorary Big Ten school for the sake of this discussion) even when I’ve got them losing?

What do you think? Brackets? Or underdogs?