The competition was fierce.  Pringles versus graham crackers.  PB&J versus turkey and cheese.  Fries versus cheeseburger.

At the beginning of March Madness, AP Psychology and American History teacher Mr. Schall hatched the idea to do a snack bracket, riffing off of the basketball brackets flying around at the time.  The first round alone featured 296 responses.

“Like many great 21st century innovations, it all started in 4th period AP Psychology class,” Schall explained. “Nate Stetson was chomping on a bag of Smart Popcorn. It was March–and in March, I tend to put everything into bracket form: college basketball teams, favorite students, my children. There was the pro-Pringles crowd, the Dorito loyalists, some weird kid who insisted Funyuns were good. That was the start of it.”

Schall formed a “panel” of both students and adults who came up with the “contestants,” or different foods, and set up the rounds exactly like March Madness.

“I found myself on a bus going to an away volleyball match and Mr. Long, the other assistant coaches, and Kate Adams found ourselves brainstorming the 64-team bracket — I mean ‘snacket,'” Schall said. “Later that night, with our good friends from Google, Snacketology was born.”

Participants voted through a Google form and left abundant comments, and Schall then took the results and moved each winner on to the next round.

What made Snacketology even more exciting for the participants was that Schall included a full-blown write-up of which snacks got voted out, which ones were on a roll, and which comments were the funniest.

“When you don’t worry about teaching your classes, it really frees up time to devote to things that really matter, like the Snacketology bracket,” Schall joked.

The comments were in fact many particpants’ favorite part of the mock competition.

“The fact that I have to choose between macaroni and cheese and a dinner roll hurts me,” one commenter wrote. “I have been staring at that one for 5 minutes.”

Another commenter wrote, “I can’t vote for Doritos vs. Oreos. They both suck. Doritos vs. Oreos is like choosing between Trump vs. Kanye West. They are overrated, fail to satisfy, and are beloved by those who have no taste.”

One particularly impassioned participant left a six-paragraph ode to macaroni and cheese.

The two foods that made it to the “championchip” were the cheeseburger and french fries — but the competition was not even close.  Fries won 61% to 38%.

Now that it’s all over, it is “the end to an era,” as said by one voter. But don’t worry, Schall plans to be back next year with a whole new bracket.

To see one of Schall’s inspired write-ups, check out the link below.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dTfJZhgq859ZavWGbod3gJbVDtZqwDZeaN8bjARUWlc/edit