...Get Set...

It's the biggest day of championship week. Fourteen conferences decide their champions today or tonight and another five have semifinals. So let's break it down, conference by conference, shall we?

Today's Finals:

AMERICA EAST: Playing in the early game today, Albany (chosen by 65 of us) punched its ticket, beating Stony Brook (taken by 6: Gorenstein, Atkinson, L Leach, M Peloso, Serri, Grossman).

ACC: Top two choices Duke (picked by 42) and Virginia (29) both lost yesterday, meaning the ACC championship is down to Notre Dame (taken by 3: Geo B, E Pogach, L Schlegel) or UNC (selected by 2: Steinhardt, L Leach).

BIG 12: Kansas (chosen by 52) plays Iowa State (15) for the Big 12 championship.

BIG EAST: Villanova (selected by 66) takes on Xavier (selected by absolutely nobody) for the Big East title.

BIG SKY: Eastern Washington (liked by 53) plays a road game against Montana (supported by 8: Burch, Feinblatt, D Kedson, P Leach, Marshall, M McAtee, Tester, Rybaltowski) in Missoula for all the Big Sky marbles.

CUSA: It's UAB (chosen by 9) vs. Middle Tennessee State (chosen by nada) in Conference USA.

IVY: The Big Egghead Showdown happens today, as Harvard (liked by 73) and Yale (favorited by 6: Joe Mc, Templeton, E Pogach, Hahn, Steinhardt, P Ripley) square off to determine the Ivy champ.

MAC: Central Michigan (taken by 29) faces off against Buffalo (8: Baumgarten, Biebel, Harlan, Harlan 2, D Kedson, Rubinson, L Schlegel, Templeton) for top spot in the MAC.

MEAC: After both NCCU (wanted by 67) and Norfolk State (12) went down yesterday, it's Goose Egg City in the MEAC, where Hampton (chosen by none of us) and Delaware State (equally chosen by a big zero) vie for the MEAC's NCAAT berth.

MOUNTAIN WEST: Favorite San Diego State (favorite of 66 of us, anyway) tries to stave off Wyoming (favorite of 2: Booth and T Joseph) for the Mountain West crown.

PAC 12: In a league where mathematics seems much more important than in rival conferences like the Big 10, Big 12, and Atlantic 10, Arizona (taken by 70) hopes to take Oregon (taken by zilch) down for the count.

SOUTHLAND: In an epic batter between really old, dead Texans, Stephen F. Austin (chosen by 56) hopes to vanquish Sam Houston (selected by 22) for the Southland championship.

SWAC: 47 of us stand behind Texas Southern, while only 5 (Atkinson, Butscher, A Cristinzio, T Cristinzio, E Pogach) seem to think Southern has a chance in the Sealed-With-A-?-Conference.

WAC: Way out west in the WAC, all but one of us picked New Mexico State (78), and the one who didn't, didn't pick Seattle (0).


Today's Semifinals:

AAC:
-- SMU (59) vs. Temple (7: Atkinson, Hahn, Joe Mc, L Schlegel, Selarnick, R Simon, Tester);
-- UConn (5: M Josephs, Rybaltowski, Selig 2, Steinhardt, Warner) vs. Tulsa (4: Booth, T Cristinzio, Rubinson, B Whiteside).

ATLANTIC 10:
-- VCU (51) vs. Davidson (9);
-- Dayton (14) vs. Rhode Island (2: Selig 2, Steinhardt).

BIG 10:
-- Wisconsin (66) vs. Purdue (0);
-- Maryland (8: A Cristinzio, J Donadio, Sr., Hahn, D Josephs, Kovolski, S Leach, E Pogach, Selarnick) vs. Michigan State (4: M Josephs, Mad Leach, Steinhardt, Templeton).

SEC:
-- Kentucky (78) vs. Auburn (0);
-- Arkansas (1: Rybaltowski) vs. Georgia (0).

SUN BELT:
-- Georgia State (41) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (1: L Leach);
-- Georgia Southern (18) vs. Louisiana-Monroe (19).


Note that we haven't updated the standings to reflect Albany's win; we'll take care of that later after the other dominoes fall.