With the NFL season over, the Super Bowl concluded, and the fact that nobody really cares about the NBA or NHL, the attention of the sports world shifts to Division I College Basketball and the phenomenon known as March Madness. That moniker refers to the 68-team NCAA Men’s Division I basketball tournament that commences annually near the beginning of March. This year, March Madness begins on Tuesday, March 13 and ends on Monday, April 2. It will take place in multiple locations throughout the United States, with the Final Four and subsequent championship game to be played in Louisiana’s Superdome.

            In a favorable reversal of recent fortunes in college hoops, four teams from this state have at least an outside shot at making the tournament; they are the University of Colorado, Colorado State, the University of Denver, and Air Force Academy. CU, blackballed from the tourney last year by the selection committee, seems to have the strongest case for selection of the four teams, with a record of 19-9 and several big wins over PAC-12 and top 100 ranked teams. CSU, the only team of the four to enter the Realm of Madness in 2011, also has a strong case for selection, with many big wins over teams in the Mountain West Conference. The other two teams—DU and AFA—will likely have to win their respective pre-March Madness conference tournaments to be selected to the big dance (CU and CSU will also have to do fairly well in these tournaments to be selected).

            Though it is likely that at least one of these teams will make it to the tournament, they will doubtfully make it beyond the first few rounds. The highest rounds of March Madness, especially the Final Four, are typically dominated by the powerhouses Duke, North Carolina and Connecticut as well as other teams from six major conferences (A.K.A. the “Big 6:” the ACC, the Big 12, the Big East, the Big 10, the PAC-12 and the SEC). The 2011 Final Four was atypical due to the fact that two of its teams—Butler and Virginia Commonwealth—were from outside of the Big 6, a feat that may never be equaled. But upsets are still likely here and there, seeing as how the tournament is single elimination.

            The sun is up longer, Spring is just around the corner and March Madness is nearly here.  One final piece of advice: if you do not fill out a tournament bracket, you will be considered un-American because even President Obama has called the activity a national pastime in recent years, and if Obama says it, it must be true, right?