Attention hoops fans! March Madness is here again! Time for the annual NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Pool.
Enter your brackets at ESPN Men's Tournament Challenge - Make Picks or download the ESPN Tournament Challenge app on your phone.
The group name is SDMB Bracketeers and the password is cecil123. As in past years, there is a limit of 3 brackets per player. Brackets must be entered before the first game starts on Thursday.
Just FYI…I entered a bracket (or two) last year. I just created a new bracket on ESPN, and, after completion, it was automatically entered in this pool. Which is fine with me!
Yeah, I noticed the same thing.
Defending Champion Ponch8 has entered his bracket. I may create a second one as well that better reflects the awesome power of the Florida Gators.
OK, I just created a second bracket on ESPN, and it was NOT automatically entered into the SD pool. I had to add it via a click.
I have absolutely no idea what’s going on, but my two brackets are in. I have no expectations of winning.
I had the same problem. I completed two brackets but only my first one got added automatically. I had to go back and add the second one.
Reminder to get your brackets in before the first game tips off tomorrow (Thursday). Looks like we have 19 in the pool so far.
Anybody have Kentucky going all the way? No? Good, 'cuz they’re out. Go Oakland!
I had them winning a few games in one of my brackets. One of these days I will learn not to do that. Kentucky has won one NCAA tournament game in the last 4 seasons. Perhaps the UK faithful may be running out of patience with Coach Cal.
Damn Jayhawks almost pulled a Kentucky last night, and kept me up way past my bedtime. Blowing big leads seems to be their tournament specialty.
Today Northwestern scored 19 points in the first half. Later they scored 19 points in overtime.
They were 5-5 from the field in OT, including two end-of-shot-clock 3-pointers. And 7 of 8 from the line in OT.
In another thread, this linked story pointed out that SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey wanted to end automatic bids for conference champions (presumably the one-bid smaller school conferences) in favor of more selections from the committee, presumably so that the P5 conferences would get more teams in the tournament.
Wonder what Sankey would say right now? The SEC earned 8 bids (1 automatic, 7 by the committee), and went 3-5 in the first round. All five losses were to lower-seeded teams.
I never really understood the logic of giving an automatic bid to the conference tournament winner, rather than the conference champion. Too easy for a so-so team that would never make the tournament otherwise, to get hot for a couple games and get in the tournament, where they’re likely to get squashed like a bug in the first round. Meanwhile a more deserving team gets locked out.
AIUI, it’s up to the conference to determine who gets the automatic bid. Until 2017, the Ivy League did not have a post-season conference tournament, so the regular season winner got the bid.
Ultimately, then, the Big Boy conferences will always have a tournament, because the tourney winner might add an additional spot for the conference, like NC State in the ACC this year. And, of course, the conference tournaments are big money makers…
OTOH, the tournament winner might not have been the best team over the course of a season, but they are by definition on a hot streak right now. NC State is in the sweet 16, and Oregon took a #3 seed to double overtime in the second round. Seems like it’s hard to argue those teams are “undeserving”.
The shiniest example of this is UConn in 2011, which won five games to secure the automatic bid, and then proceeded to win the national title.
Well, my bracket fell completely apart in the Sweet 16. Looks like I have one team left in the entire tournament. 
In the Elite Eight now – go Wolfpack!
Duke has played a 13 seed, a 12 seed, a 1 seed without their all-American, and will now face an 11 seed for the regional final.
Go Wolfpack, indeed.
I had completely forgotten until just now that one of my brackets actually has NC State in the Final Four. Clearly I am an extremely well-informed and insightful fan. Go Wolfpack!!
The defending champion Ponch8 has climbed out of the cellar! However, with so many other people also picking UConn, it looks like I have no chance to defend my title successfully.