The year end tournament in college basketball is upon us--usually referred to as March Madness.

For those who are unfamiliar, March Madness is when 64 (actually, 65 due to a weird quirk) college basketball teams enter a single elimination tournament for all the marbles. The tournament has four regions and the the winner of each region gets to cut down the nets and advance to the Final Four.

For those who like basketball, it's pretty intense, with shocking upsets occuring as some small schools regularly beat at least a couple of the "big boys"

Many offices have office pools which pick the winner. It is estimated that $2 billion will be wagered on the NCAA tournament in office pools this year.

For the basketball fans out there:

Who is going to the Final Four?

Who is going to win it all?

Are you involved in an office pool?

I just signed up for one. I never win anything like this and am usually out in the second round.

But, for the record,

Final Four:

Duke
UCLA
Ohio State
Connecticut

Finals

UConn
Duke

Champion

UConn

Final Four:
Pitt
Texas
UConn (as much as it hurts to make this statement, don’t be surprised if the Tar Heels come out of this region, if they do they’ll win it all)
Florida

Semi’s:
Uconn
Pitt

Champ:
UConn

In Kentucky, the madness that is March may only be surpassed by those on Tobacco Road. I’ll be in 5-6 office pools and a couple at the local, one is $20 entry and the other is $50.

That’s madness (or foolishness).

Okay, here it is, the absolute lock for the Final Four:
UConn
Duke
Pitt
Boston College

Champion:
UConn


I'll be back in a few weeks to tell you I told you so.

CP

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Eeyore would people also need the user name to enter?

I am going to withhold my predictions until late Wednesday.

Most people ignore the NIT's which start today. Watching the NIT teams and being aware of who they play and what conferance they come from is a nice tool to fill out a successful bracket.

The NCAA tourney starts Thursday (ignoring the play-in game)

The NIT games that will be played before that game.

Fairleigh Dickinson at Manhattan 7:00 p.m., ET
Mar. 14th Tues. Rutgers at Penn State 8:00 p.m., ET ESPNU
Mar. 14th Tues. Lipscomb at UTEP 9:05 p.m., ET
Mar. 14th Tues. Akron at Temple 7:05 p.m., ET Gametracker
Mar. 14th Tues. Delaware State at Northern Arizona 9:30 p.m., ET
Mar. 14th Tues. Virginia at Stanford 9:30 p.m., ET ESPN
Mar. 14th Tues. Georgia Southern at Charlotte 7:30 p.m., ET
Mar. 14th Tues. Miami (OH) at Butler 7:00 p.m., ET Gametracker
First Round
Mar. 15th Wed. Old Dominion at Colorado
Mar. 15th Wed. Vanderbilt at Notre Dame 7:00 p.m., ET ESPN
Mar. 15th Wed. Oklahoma State at Miami (FL) 9:00 p.m., ET ESPNU
Mar. 15th Wed. Louisiana Tech at Clemson
Mar. 15th Wed. Brigham Young at Houston Gametracker
Mar. 15th Wed. Wake Forest at Minnesota 7:00 p.m., ET ESPN2
Mar. 15th Wed. Western Kentucky at South Carolina


See with the Big East and Big 10 getting so many teams that Rutgers and Penn St game is a good potential indicator of what will happen with the tourney teams from that conferance. Just compare like results and what you saw in the conferance tourneys. It's a nice tool.

ACC, Big 10, Big 12, PAC 10, SEC, MT West etc......all up playing before the tournament.

It is a potential barometer for how the big tourney will shape out.

I signed up three brackets Eeyore...

not many jumped in. come on in puhllease!