It's here! Is it better than Christmas morning? It just might be if you are over the age of 12 and have a soft spot for gambling, watching kids play basketball in a sometimes exciting and often frustrating way, or if you picking teams you know little about. To help you with those picks for your last minute bracket needs, we have assembled a list of expert picks from those who spent a lot more time preparing for the 2011 NCAA Tournament than you did.
Real Clear Sports looked at the picks from 24 experts around the country and found that of those, Ohio State is the clear favorite to win it all. Seventy-five percent of picks had them emerging as the national champion with Kansas coming in second (17 percent) and Duke third (8 percent).
Regionally, Ohio State was obviously the favorite to come out of the East and make it to the Final Four. A distant second was Syracuse with just one pick for Kentucky and none for UNC.
Duke was the pick of choice in the West with picks also going for Texas, San Diego State, UConn and Temple.
In the Southwest Region, Kansas is the popular pick, followed by Notre Dame, Louisville and Purdue.
The region with the most diversity of opinion is the Southeast. Pitt was the most popular pick among the experts but they were followed closely by Florida and then some picks also going to Kansas Sate, Wisconsin, Michigan State and BYU.
If you hurry, there's still time to enter a bracket contest, and if you are looking for one,try ours!
March Madness resources: Printable 2011 NCAA Tournament bracket ... Full 2011 NCAA Tournament schedule.