It must be March!!!! Well, at least I think it is \u2013 the calendar says it is. But after a year of missing the madness of the NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Championship, some things just don\u2019t feel right. Sure \u2013 there are the normal hints. For example, the Ohio Valley Conference started off Championship Week by having their final \u2013 where Morehead State crushed regular season champion Belmont by 15 to claim the OVC bid to the dance. So, you already have your traditional upsets happening in the mid-major conferences. But then there is this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, it is already shaping up to be a wild March. Possibly having an NCAA Tournament without Duke and Kentucky. Contingency plans including replacement teams and the first four games not starting until Thursday, March 18th. The entire tournament being played in the state of Indiana. There are lots of things that don\u2019t feel just right. But at least for now, there is one thing that does feel right. The NCAA is playing college basketball games and plans to announce the 68 teams that will be playing in the NCAA Tournament in just a week. And so that can only mean one thing \u2013 IT MUST BE MARCH!!!!!!!!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if it is March, it can only mean one more thing \u2013 it must be time to STOMP THE LUNATIC!!!!!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s right \u2013 the Lunatic is back for another month of sleep deprivation, looking through stat sheets in a foolish attempt to show he can predict college basketball games. And I am sure that this will end in the way it always ends, in a horrible beating. We all know better \u2013 he is no real threat \u2013 his kids will likely have better picks by picking schools that their grandparents attended. But while we all know this will end in a thorough stomping, we will all get to enjoy the entertaining ranting and raving of our favorite sleep-deprived lunatic!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, without any more delays, the 2021 Stomp the Lunatic contest is officially announced!!!!!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most important part is ready \u2013 the website is up and ready to go for another year of bracket picks. As always, the website will have all of the pages that make the Stomp the Lunatic great \u2013 whether it be NCAA results so the statisticians can build predictive models, poorly done bracketology that will show the Lunatic is simply a crazy basketball fan, cheat sheets once the brackets are released for those of us who don\u2019t want to do hours of analysis, and of course, everyone\u2019s favorite rants about the games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, you can go to the site to see the previous standings or read all the crazy blogs and ramblings.\u00a0 I am sure that I will be ranting all week as I try to set up my pointless bracketology page \u2013 there will be tons of great Conference Tournament games to watch. Also, feel free to go on the User Blog page and put your own opinions out there (or simply cheer on your favorite team).\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the committee has announced the 68 teams next Sunday (March 14th<\/sup>), I will update the site to have the entry form. If you don\u2019t remember the rules (or this email has been forwarded to you), there is a link on the site. As we have done in previous years, we will not pick the 4 play-in games. But with all the COVID protocols, the tournament is starting late.\u00a0 So, all entries are needed by Friday, March 19th by the time the first games start (typically Noon).<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, do your research, get ready for the Madness to begin, and good luck to everyone in STOMPING THE LUNATIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It must be March!!!! Well, at least I think it is \u2013 the calendar says it is. But after a year of missing the madness of the NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Championship, some things just don\u2019t feel right. Sure \u2013 there are the normal hints. For example, the Ohio Valley Conference started off Championship Week by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1802,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions\/1802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tehodgson.com\/stompthelunatic\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}