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Seriously, if there's anything people at CoN should hate, it's Gabe. And Kansas. I don't understand why anyone would want anything to do with Kansas.

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Once you've signed up, post here to tell us your bracket name, so we know who is who.

It's that time of year again - Spring is coming and so is March Madness, on for its ninth year of people being embarrassed by both their picks and their alma maters. Whose will be the biggest fail this year? My Illinois? Neal's Purdue? Death Penalty's Notre Dame? I, for one, hope it's DP's. As usual.

This year, the bracket draw happens on 13 March and the games that count start on 17 March. There are a few extra play-in games this year but they don't count for the picks, as the game assumes that nobody will care who wins them.

Sign up now, and ask questions of us between now and the first game. I'll definitely post and email players when the picks are available. As always, there will be forum awards to be won and possibly an AmaCoN gift card, even though I'm broke.

More posts with old stats and more details surely to come.



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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

Do I need to flex my NCAA badges?

I just guess and I win, I'm better than that damn world cup squid.

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And have you found your joy, in this near dead world of ours?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 21st February 2011 13:53)

Whose will be the biggest fail this year? My Illinois?

Does it count if their fail happens on Selection Sunday?

It's funny, I came in here with every intention to suggest a new enemy outside of Kansas, but it's just so much fun watching them lose to a should-be-way-overmatched opponent almost every year. #14 Bucknell, #13 Bradley, #9 Northern Iowa

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

Hoping my Irish can do well this year. I'll sign up likely soon and hope I don't have some team i pick screw me over in round 1 or 2 (I'm looking at you Georgetown)

In it to lose it, as always. But it's gonna be fun. Which team should I pick this year? Not Duke. Definitely not Duke.

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Squenix games completed:

Final Fantasy: 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, Tactics Advance 2
Chrono Trigger
Dragon Quest: 7, 8, 11
Super Mario RPG

I'm in, of course. My team blows goats this year, so I'll just have to settle for murdering our rival's bubble chances. AGAIN. Seth Greenberg's rallying cry for a 128-team tournament is deliciously futile.

But yeah, tournament. I'll do that thing I always do where I'm a contender until the final 8 or so where my bracket is laughably bad.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Quote (Gabe @ 21st February 2011 17:08)

Do I need to flex my NCAA badges?

You mean your non-1st place badges?

Excited for this, as always. Just checked my calendar and looks like I'm just about all set to glue myself to the TV/CoNchat until my eyes bleed. And by eyes bleed I mean cry when Maryland doesn't make the field.

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

Quote

people being embarrassed by both their picks and their alma maters.  Whose will be the biggest fail this year? My Illinois? Neal's Purdue? Death Penalty's Notre Dame? I, for one, hope it's DP's. As usual.

As usual, I'll pick ND to win a few. And, as usual, they'll almost certainly be upset in the first round.

Regardless, my humble picks of destiny will be back in it again this year, with all the false hope and heartbreak that comes with them. And probably way more CoNchat than my schedule can afford

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Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

I'm in as Michael Jordan's bracket. I don't know much about basketball but he told me he knows a thing or two about the sport so I think I have a fighting chance this time.

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

I'm in as SD's STDs. I've not much else to say until the draw. These kids should be in school.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

This is good. I'm ready.

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

We're only at 13 players so far, but I just sent out a ton of PMs and Facebook messages for people who have played in the past to wake up and get their entries in.

Come on, newbies, this is a sporting game in which you need to know only the raw basics of sport in general. It's as easy as any competition we ever have, and it's a great way to connect better to the community, especially in chat. If your first post here has been in the last year, now's your chance to get involved in one of the oldest CoN traditions there is.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 2nd March 2011 18:02)

We're only at 13 players so far, but I just sent out a ton of PMs and Facebook messages for people who have played in the past to wake up and get their entries in.

Come on, newbies, this is a sporting game in which you need to know only the raw basics of sport in general. It's as easy as any competition we ever have, and it's a great way to connect better to the community, especially in chat. If your first post here has been in the last year, now's your chance to get involved in one of the oldest CoN traditions there is.

And by "raw basics of sport in general," he means no knowledge of sports. Seriously, pick your teams based on who has the cooler mascot if nothing else. Just so long as you pick something, it's fun!

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Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

Watch out for Stuart Scott's Eye. That will be the winning bracket for sure (unless Notre Dame and BYU screw me over)

Roped in again to make bets on a game I don't watch for teams I don't even understand.

Random picks aho!

Doing this again because Josh is a persuasive something something.

In as Galatic Amaru. Thaaaaaaaaaaaat explains everything.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

Can we get a little hype-talk going?

Everyone's losing and looks terrible so I don't know who or what. I'm expecting to see a lot of red on my bracket this year.

I am the biggest Jimmer fan in the world and even I think BYU potentially seeing a No. 1 seed is absolute absurdity.

In other news, does anyone really believe the Big East is good this year?

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

Quote (Kappa the Imp @ 4th March 2011 03:23)

In other news, does anyone really believe the Big East is good this year?

I hate the Big East every year. So, no, I don't believe it.

How about some anti-hype talk? If Illinois gets in, I will cry. I might be upset if they make the NIT, even.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

Quote (World Champion @ 2nd March 2011 22:22)

Watch out for Stuart Scott's Eye. That will be the winning bracket for sure (unless Notre Dame and BYU screw me over)

It's Notre Dame, WC. Expect it

And yeah, I really don't know how to feel about this year's teams. I don't feel like there will be many reliable picks.

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Currently Playing : Final Fantasy V
Most Recently Beat : Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Favorite Game : Final Fantasy X

The newest CoNcast is up! Have a listen!

There are four teams already guaranteed into the field for next weekend, on the basis of winning their small conference tournaments this weekend: UNC-Asheville, Belmont, Morehead State and Indiana State.

Which of these might become a giant-killer, and which will end up with a strange CoN nickname along the way? Play to find out, and play to win whatever cockamamie prize I come up with next week. We're up to 20 players now, which is pretty respectable, but we seriously need to see some new blood show up too.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

I'm in as Patrick Warburton's Facepaint.

Good luck, all.

I'm in as Ancient Scrolls Unearthed.

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"Getting upset over a trifle would indeed be unmannerly."

-Afra to Damia

Blaugh, Purdue's loss to Iowa on Saturday really pissed me off. Matt Painter was making very arrogant substitutions really early in the game (Patrick Bade should NEVER set foot on the floor, EVER), and I think the Iowa team took it as disrespect on their senior night, which they absolutely should have. They played with a chip on their shoulder and Purdue played like they were just entitled to the win. It was a really gross moment in a very magical season, so I hope they can turn it around, make some noise in the Big Ten Tournament, and rebound for the big dance.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

I'm in as 528491 on there. Go Irish.

There's a legitimate shot that Harvard might make it into the field this year. Everyone should be rooting to see Harvard, right? This is a school who has not been in the Big Dance since just after World War II.

For more info, http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/news/story?id=6190898

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

My perception of time gets worse every year, so it hasn't quite dawned on me yet that this weekend is in fact Selection Sunday. But as I ease into this exciting and daunting truth, I'm beginning to realize that I'm deathly afraid of the bracket this year. Not necessarily that I won't know who to pick (that's every year), but rather that nobody really seems obviously dominant.

Why is this a problem? Because if there aren't many favorites, then there aren't many chances for hilarious upsets! Where's the fun in Northern Iowa toppling Kansas if nobody really believes in Kansas? Why watch Coach K's sad face when Duke goes and drops 2 of their last 3 in the regular season anyway?

Forget the top seeds... the 3-7 seeds are shaping up to be pathetic. I'm not going to be surprised if a Cinderella has a fantasy run because the only thing that's proven is that everyone is totally beatable.

I'm exaggerating, of course, but the sentiment is there: I want bigger giants so they can fall harder!

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

I agree with most of your sentiment, Nate, but then I think back to the 2008 tournament when all those giants ended up making the final four and it was an incredibly anticlimactic ending (aside from Chalmers' insane overtime-forcing three). The first two rounds were insane that year, and after that everything was just 'meh'. Hopefully weaker giants just means that every game is amazing.

I'd say that Kansas is still the team to beat. Ohio State has the better record and better body of work, but they still only play about 6 deep and Jared Sullinger is totally bully-able inside, so the very realistic combination of a cold-shooting day from Diebler and a big man to contain OSU's game in the paint could send them home very early. Kansas plays 9-10 deep - their first five off the bench could probably start at several tournament-making mid-majors - and to me that's one of the biggest factors in the ability to go deep. At the same time, they're still very vulnerable to a giant-killer like they were last year, as it's easy to play down to a "lesser" opponent and just have them destroy you, like Northern Iowa did last year. I'll definitely be pulling for that very situation.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

Boy, it was really looking like both Ohio State and North Carolina might lose early in the conference tournaments there. That would have been something to see, could have really given a chance for some teams to get in or get in higher. In the end, no excitement to be had in terms of conference shakeups, shame.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

Pitt losing was a bit of a shakeup I think. It could push them into a #2 seed if Notre Dame wins the Big East I think.

Quote (GamblingCat @ 11th March 2011 19:13)

Pitt losing was a bit of a shakeup I think. It could push them into a #2 seed if Notre Dame wins the Big East I think.

And how about now?

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?