The (March) Madness Is Upon Us

It's that time of the year. The Madness is upon us and not I'm not talking about the professional wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage. I am talking about the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament aka "March Madness". The time of the year where people from all walks of life come together for a common purpose...to fill out a bracket and try to win office pools/online contests/bragging rights among friends.

This time of the year is one of my favorite times of the year. I thoroughly enjoy filling out brackets and watching the games, especially the first two rounds. The first two rounds of the tournament are some of the most exciting games in any sport. All the drama, all the suspense, all the upsets. It makes for some quality entertainment. And on top of that, games are on during the day, which is another plus.

I kept up with the tournament ever since I was a little kid (of course). I started getting more interested during high school. Then, some of my teachers when we had some down time would turn the TV on and we'd watch some of the games (thank you Channel One for bringing cable into the classroom). But I really didn't get involved until I went to college at Union University. My sophomore year I was rooming with three guys who became my best friends. The four of us along with a brother of one of my roommates and another friend had a deal where the winner would be treated to a steak dinner by the rest of the group. This became a tradition through college and by the time we were seniors, there was a decent size group involved. It really brought out a sense of fellowship and good times and made watching the games more interesting. Part of how the grouping worked was we would fill out five brackets and at the end of the tournament we would take our best bracket and compare and the one who had the best of the best would be the winner. I ended up winning my senior year (2002, picked Maryland to win it all and was correct).

Since college, I've continued on with picking brackets and entered online contests (ESPN, Yahoo, and this year Facebook/CBS Sports). It's fun and it's also a good way to keep up with friends as well.

This year is no exception. I have been breaking down the bracket ever since they came out yesterday (Sunday). It is has been tough and I think it'll be an interesting tournament. Even though it's Monday, I'm ready to go ahead with my consensus Final Four and my consensus National Champion. When I say consensus, I mean that the bracket that I'm rooting for overall will have this on it. So here is my Final Four: Kansas, UCLA, Memphis, Tennessee. And for national champion: Tennessee. Yes I know I'm a homer but I do feel that this team this year has what it takes to win the whole thing and so that's what I'm going with.

Good luck to everyone filling out brackets!