March Madness inspires 'tournament' for Windsor pizzerias

March Madness begins on Thursday, but a different competition inspired by the National Collegiate Athletic Association men's basketball tournament has already gotten underway here in Windsor.

Bird Bouchard is a big basketball fan and he also happens to like pizza. He and his wife were trying to name all of the local pizza places they could, out of boredom. Then, after he filled out his March Madness bracket, he had the idea to launch a pizza bracket.

"My wife is pregnant and we were just trying to out find ways to pass the time," he said on Windsor Morning Wednesday.

Votes are being cast on Bouchard's Twitter account to find out which local pizzeria deserves a slice of glory.

The five-day event started on Monday with 32 restaurants in the tournament, and each round of voting for the best pizza place lasts from 1:30 p.m. to the same time the next day. The seeding was random.

So far, hundreds of votes have been cast.

As of Wednesday morning, they're down to voting between 16 pizzerias, and there's an "absolute duel" going on right now between Armando's and Capri, Bouchard said.

The winner will be announced on Saturday. There's no prize for whatever pizza joint wins,  just bragging rights, Bouchard said.

Bouchard said they could only bring so many pizza places into the tournament but he hopes people support all of the restaurants, given the difficult year local businesses have had due to the pandemic.

"If you're going to go out and feed a bunch of people, maybe just go ahead and consider some local pizza places. You know, it doesn't even necessarily have to be these local pizza places."