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What We Do and Do Not Know About The 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 , Posted by Christopher Byrne at 10:27 PM, under , , ,

Athens, GA (Mar 4, 2008) - Reviewing the referral logs for this web site, it is becoming clear that people are gearing up for the "Road to the Final Four". It is also clear that people are looking for information that nobody knows. Here are the most frequently searched questions that have appeared in the logs.

1. What is the television schedule for the games?

Except for the dreaded play-in game, the television schedule will not be known until the field is announced, and CBS Sports decides which games will be shown when. The Play-in Game will be played on Tuesday, March 18, 2008. It is scheduled to start at 7:30 PM EDT and will be on ESPN.

2. What are the CBS Sports announcing teams for the tournament?

CBS Sports has not announced this yet, but has indicated to Eye on Sports Media that they plan to release the pairings next Monday or Tuesday. Our guess is Monday, as CBS Sports is hosting a NCAA Tournament Media Day at Black Rock at lunchtime on Tuesday, March 11, 2008. So when we know, you will know.

3. What teams are playing in the tournament?

Who knows? What we do know is the power conferences will have a bunch of teams. We also know that all of the bracketology "experts" will be doing their usual tap-dancing and guessing. They will also pick whatever team is leading in the smaller conferences as the automatic bid. Is this because they are too lazy to even research these teams and conferences. And if some schools from these conferences luck into an at-large bid, Billy Packer will whine about it.

Something else about the tournament is interesting this year. The 1st and 2nd rounds of the tournament are in direct conflict with the highest Holy days in the Catholic Church. Yes, the tournament starts on Holy Thursday, continues through Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. So, does this mean that the Catholic colleges such as Xavier, Georgetown, Marquette, Gonzaga, et al will turn down an invitation because of the conflict? Not likely, but it is a good question of what is more important to these schools: money or the tenets of their faith.

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