March Madness is Here!

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Mar 13, 2006 2:06PM

The winter sports doldrums from which Chicagoist has suffered since the Super Bowl are almost over. Sunday's announcement of the NCAA Tournament field kick off the beginning of the new sports season, as college basketball leads us into baseball, which leads us back into football.

Illinois is represented by three teams in the field of 65. Southern Illinois made the field as an 11th seed after winning the Missouri Valley Conference. Bradley is a 13th seed after finishing second in the MVC tournament to the Salukis. The University of Illinois Fighting IIlini fell to a 4th seed after their premature exit in the Big Ten Tournament. Had they beaten the Michigan St. Spartans, they likely would have been a 3rd seed.

Chicagoist likes to let the bracket sink in for a couple days before making our selections. We must wait for the upset specials to reveal themselves to us before marking our sheets. But while we are usually pretty successful when picking those 14th seed upsets of 3rd seeds, the beating we always suffer during the first weekend's games keep us from ever actually winning our pool.

Want to go head to head against Chicagoist? Once again, we've set up a Chicagoist group on ESPN's Tournament Challenge. The password to join is: Chicagoist. Last year, Brad Manuel won the Chicagoist Tournament Challenge. As for us? We're just hoping to improve on our 31st place finish.