Due to unpopular demand, we are holding one-hour Chat Blocks every day this week. Here's the schedule (all times EDT): Monday at 3 pm, Tuesday at 2 pm, Wednesday at 1 pm, Thursday and Friday at 5 pm.

And don't forget about our bracket contest!

INDIANAPOLIS -- I see you printing out that CBS blank bracket at work, starting to fill it out in pencil. (You like Murray State's chances for the upset, I see.) I noticed that you'd opened a Fantasy account at ESPN,com, getting ready to fill out 10 different contingency entries. (But you're definitely hedging those bets on Murray State, aren't you?) Seriously, just stop right there. Don't do it. Sure, it's a shared experience with all your friends and online buddies, but stop. Do not enter the contest. There is a better way.

I have not filled out the complete six rounds of a bracket, in advance, for seven years. Growing up, I never filled the whole thing in. Two years ago, in this space, I put forward my reasoning why you shouldn't enter your office pool. I never fully understood why secretaties and cubicle dwellers and sportz junkies are so adamant about proving their ability to see the future, especially when most of them haven't seen enough of the past-in-context to have any sort of real perspective. And Bracket Whining Syndrome (BWS) is a national March menace, the disorder that causes people to say things like "Awwww man, my bracket got busted by [fill in the 11 seed]." (Side effects include bystanders experiencing strong urges to kick BWS sufferers in the Pants Region.)

I've always believed that March Madness is more fun, and more mad, when the games are simply enjoyed for what they are -- individual pieces of America's most spectacular and dramatic sporting event. Putting myself in the middle of things, selfishly rooting for teams because a win would give me a certain number of pool points, detracted from that experience. And in the early days before The Mid-Majority, I ran into a rare fellow with whom I found bracket simpatico.

Here, Hoops Nation, are your champions. A majority of them won the "marathon" of the regular season. Some didn't. But all survived a March test in miniature, a series of one-and-done games where a loss meant long nights of cold sweat, mentally organizing lists of positive accomplishments, and the real possibility of being sent to a March tournament without office pools. But these teams, pictured below, are ready to do life-or-death battle this week, because they recognize the challenge, and have risen to it.

For most of these teams, the happy moments pictured here will be the last of their kind. They will find their dreams shredded by superior teams. For some of them, this is only the beginning. But all of them are champions, and that's the word that's going on the banners in their home gyms. Here they all are, pictured alongside diagrams and maps of the paths they took to arrive in the Tournament, the bridges between their dreams and their NCAA reality.

Happy Selection Sunday, the day when Christmas morning comes at 6 pm.

• Seven championships were decided on the penultimate day of Championship Fortnight. All hail Vermont, back in the Dance for the first time since 2005 (Season 1) and also for the first time in the Mike Lonergan era. Congratulations to Morgan State; the Bears navigated the always-difficult MEAC tourney to repeat as titlists. We salute UC Santa Barbara, which hadn't won the Big West tourney title since 2002. Sam Houston State, consistently one of the best teams in the Southland, broke through in the tourney for the first time since 2003.
  
• Congrats, as well, to the surprise winners. The Ohio Bobcats completed a stunning run through the MAC tourney as a No. 9 seed, defeating Akron in overtime to claim that school's first Dance card since Season 1. New Mexico State had to knock off the top two seeds to win the WAC, but the Red Aggies completed the task late last night.
  
• And a special hoorah is in order to yesterday's first-time dancers: Arkansas-Pine Bluff of the SWAC, just five years removed from winning a single game out of 27.
  
• And, of course: well done, South Dakota, which won the first-ever Great West championship and will now play in a lesser postseason tournament.
  
• Chaos into order in just 12 days. Two weeks ago, there were 247 teams with NCAA dreams. Now there are 22. A few of the runner-ups will sneak through the Selection Committee's side door, but the champions of Hoops Nation won their bids on the floor, but defeating any and all comers. We salute each and every one of them.
  
• Today at approximately 3:00 p.m. Eastern time, either Richmond or Temple will be the Atlantic One, and Championship Fortnight will be complete.

• In the Patriot League, your champions are the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. The former Engineers defeated their cross-valley rival Lafayette with a strong second-half burst, and will go to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time.
  
• Higher seeds were 12-4 on Friday. The No. 3 over No. 2 upset was popular, however. Long Beach moved past Pacific in the Big West, South Carolina State eliminated Delaware State in a MEAC overtime thriller, and in the late-late game, WAC tourney host Nevada is out, thanks to a game-winning basket by New Mexico State's Jahmar Young.
  
• But the biggest surprise was Ohio, which has rode a No. 9 seed all the way to the Mid-American Conference final after defeating the eight, one, and now No. 4 Miami (Oh.). A nine has not made the MAC title game since Miami did in 2000.
  
• On this penultimate day of Championship Fortnight, there will be seven autobid games. The America East, last seen six days ago, will match up Boston and Vermont. Only one of today's tilts is between the top two seeds: Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin in the Southland. It's No. 1 seed UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach in the Big West, defending MEAC champion and regular-season winner Morgan State goes against S.C. State, and top seed Utah State awaits New Mexico State in the WAC. The tattered SWAC bracket produced a 2-vs.-5 matchup between Pine Bluff and Texas Southern, and it's an odd 3-9 game in the MAC with Ohio and Akron.
  
• And don't forget South Dakota and Houston Baptist, angling to be the inaugural Great West titlist. It's a championship!
  
• The Atlantic 14 will continue its march to the Atlantic One today with semifinals.

OK, we had some technical difficulties, but let's try this again. I can haz Championship Fortnight Chat Block?

CLEVELAND -- It was February 19, 2009, 11:49 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, during our nine-hour BracketBusters marathon chat. We have a lot of people sign in with names that aren't theirs, but we hadn't had any multi-platinum rock stars show up before.

[Comment From Tom Petty]  Two questions. 1) What are your top 3 favorite songs of mine, all-time ... 2) If you had to start your college team with one player for one year would it be -- Blake Griffin, Hasheem Thabeet or Jodie Meeks.

OK, so it wasn't really him. And I bumbled the question, something about having sold all my Petty CD's. So it wasn't my doing when all of a sudden, every other question was about Tom Petty. It came as a complete surprise -- people sending in links to YouTube videos, remembering concert experiences, and inserting TP lyric puns in their questions. We've known for years that Bally is a fan, sure, but was there really this much overlap between Mid-Majority readers and Petty fans? And c'mon, really, how?

I mean, Tom Petty isn't exactly a "mid-major guy." He often shows up at concerts with a guitar that has a giant orange and green University of Florida Gators logo. He never attended, but there are stories about how he used to mow the athletic fields for extra cash, growing up in Gainesville.

But looking over his life and career, Tom Petty's the kind of underdog who fought to earn everything he got. He's the son of an insurance salesman. He doesn't have the European features that most rock stars have; I was in Florida recently, and there are a whole lot of people who look like Tom Petty there. Tom quit high school and once filed for bankruptcy. When he became a rock star, his mansion burned down, and has had plenty of legal battles throughout his career. He certainly didn't innovate anything -- there were three chords, chiming guitars and rock songs about girls before there was a Tom Petty, and he built his career on the shoulders of giants. His slurred nasal vocals could never get him beyond the "ha-ha round" on the first week of "American Idol," but he rocked the Super Bowl and built a legendary career on his own terms anyway.

• There were no bids awarded on Thursday. Instead, many of the late leagues held quarterfinal rounds, setting up semifinals for today.
  
• The Southland and WAC put forward their top four seeds, but MEAC No. 5 Hampton snuck past No. 4 Hampton. The SWAC's bracket now has a 2-3-5-8 setup; Texas Southern ended Prairie View's season last night.
  
• But no tourney is as upside-down as the MAC. In Cleveland on Thursday, there was a 9-over-1 upset (Ohio over Kent State), a 7-over-2 (Western Michigan over Eastern Michigan), and No. 3 Akron needed double overtime to dispose of No. 6 Eastern Michigan.
  
• The Patriot League determines its champion this afternoon with a fantastic and unprecedented Lehigh Valley showdown between Lehigh and Lafayette.
  
• The following conferences will hold semis today: the WAC, SWAC, MAC and MEAC. In Winston-Salem, today features the "MEAC JAMS Turn Up The Heat After Party" and a concert by the S.O.S Band)
  
• The Big West will take the time to narrow four to two as well, but it doesn't rhyme with the other four.
  
• There are a total of 17 games today.

CLEVELAND -- Just as you don't need to put lipstick on the P.I.G., Championship Fortnight doesn't need any pretty dressing. It's compelling competition that sells itself. March basketball is elimination basketball, and we need to get 31 from 347 before we whittle 65 down to a single champion.

It's not difficult to find an emotional connection with the participants, because we share something in common. We love basketball, right? The players and coaches love Our Game more, certainly -- they've turned over their lives and livelihoods to it, to the sacrifice of nearly everything else... and we all understand loss. When a team is eliminated, it doesn't get to play basketball anymore, and that's sad.

That's what hooks me, right there. These two weeks are full of victory, tragedy, romance and death, death, death. Over and over, superior and cunning organisms destroying weaker and unlucky ones. Dreams live and die every two hours. Isn't that enough?

Whether one accepts all of this mid-major stuff at face value or not represents our far outer border. It separates the readers and the non-readers, you right now and all those who have drifted away over the seasons. Our year is beautiful, and it doesn't need further explanation or apology.

• Upsets! Congratulations to our unexpected champions from last night, as Robert Morris repeated in a sticky NEC final at top-seeded Quinnipiac, and Montana engineered a comeback for the Championship Fortnight ages in the Big Sky. The No. 4-seeded Grizzlies were down by 20 at halftime to No. 1 Weber State, and rode Anthony Johnson's 42 points to a thrilling come-from-behind bid robbery.
  
• Higher seeds were 11-5 on Wednesday. In addition to the title game upsets, SWAC No. 1 Jackson State was sent to the NIT by Grambling State. Great West No. 6 New Jersey Tech moved on to the semifinals, and No. 5 Texas-Pan American beat No. 4 Utah Valley on the Wolverines' own floor.
  
• No title games tonight, so catch your breath. Welcome to the WAC, which will play its quarter slots in Reno. The Southland moves on to semis, the Big West is in its second round, and the SWAC plays out its other two quarterfinals. The MAC gets its final eight on in Cleveland.
  
• There are 16 elimination games today.

How ya doin'? Did your team win, did it lose? Come join in a special mid-week chat on Wednesday at 2 PM ET to discuss all the weird wonders that encompass Championship Fortnight.

One makes for a one-off, but two constitutes a tradition. It's now unthinkable to end Season 6 without having our friends from Storming The Floor over during Championship Fortnight, to discuss one of the most hallowed of all college basketball rituals: the taking of the court. Our First Annual Floor-Storming Symposium occurred one year ago; welcome, now, to the Second.

Marco Anskis and Eric "Extra P." Angevine wrote the rules on storming the floor many years ago, a living document that changes and transmogrifies with each college basketball annum. And in this topsy-turvy 2009-10 season, fans have looked to them to arbitrate disputes on when to and when not to. We discussed the evolution of the art and craft of storming, new rules that have been put in place this year, and disturbing new crackdowns on these acts of simultaneous and barely-organized hardwood takeovers. We also talked about storming at an advancing age, the First Time vs. the next bunch of times, court-rushing at the NCAA Tournament, and the shocking in-plain-sight robbery of STF's prized rulebook by a deranged sportzopath.

Also this year, we have a special new addition to the Symposium proceedings. We put out a call for your court storming stories, and you responded. We've included a few of them here, interspersed with the Q&A, to offer some added perspective on the anticipation, fear, regret, vindication and relief that are all bound up in this Championship Fortnight experience. And, also, the explosive joy that happens when the emotional investment in a basketball team finally pays off.

TMM: A lot's changed since the inaugural FSS last year. For one thing, we're all older and farther away from our court-storming prime. And there have literally been like 6,000 college basketball games since then. What's the state of Hoops Nation, as far as floor storming goes?
 
Eric: Storming is getting cheaper by the week. I was asked my opinion on this by the Charlotte Observer earlier during a week when South Carolina, Western Carolina, and Charlotte had all stormed early in the season. It now looks very likely that none of those teams will make it to the NCAA tournament. Of course, that's been the argument levied on us by Twitter fiends. People are saying "we don't get to celebrate much, let us have our fun." This is the kind of thinking that's going to land us in a 96-team tournament. Special wins are rare; storming should be also.

Marco: I think the biggest change is the overall public awareness of what is considered a legitimate storming and what is considered garbage - which has its pros and cons. A pro is that you that  you now can have student section leaders in normally-rowdy Kansas State convincing jacked-up students not to take the floor in a win over No. 1 Texas because they were a Top 10 team and didn't need to storm the floor. I'll go to my grave thinking that the STF rules had an influence on that decision at K-State. A major con is that I can't watch a court storming on SportsCenter ever again without someone questioning whether it's a legitimate storming or not.

• Three champions were crowned on Tuesday night. Please give it up for: Butler of the Horizon League, which crushed Wright State in that league's title game; the Sun Belt's North Texas, which has now split the last four championships with Western Kentucky; and Oakland, long-suffering G'Grizzlies of the Badlands Conference. We salute you all!
  
• The MEAC first round played out in Winston-Salem with a minor upset (No. 9 N.C A&T over No. 8 Howard), but the Atlantic 12 provided a true shock. Charlotte, a real contender for an NCAA at-large back in January, completed its collapse by losing as a No. 5 seed to No. 12 UMass.
  
• Higher seeds were 7-4 on Tuesday.
  
• The Big Sky's semifinals produced a Wednesday pairing of top seed Weber State and Montana, a No. 4 that upset the second-seeded BEAR BEDLAM of Northern Colorado. Also on the SNL schedule for this evening is the Northeast championship: Robert Morris at Quinnipiac.
  
• But that's not all! Four tourneys swing into action tonight: the Big West first round at Anaheim, the Southland quarterfinals at Katy, Texas, the SWAC quarters at Shreveport, La. (two of them), and the inaugural Great West opening round.
  
• The MEAC continues with three quarterfinals. Also today in W-S, it's High School Day. There will be a College Fair in the morning and an unrelated Meet and Greet Mixer tonight, for MEAC alumni who have already been to college. The seasons of our lives.
  
• And with that, each of Hoops Nation's tourneys are either under way or completed. There are 16 elimination games tonight.

This is our third annual eight-pack. Of last year's group, only three (James Madison, The Citadel and Chicago State) stagnated or went backwards in 2009-10. Five made improvements, including Troy of the Sun Belt, which will fight for a league title tonight. Who among these eight will take the next step forward in 2010-11?

Princeton (19-8, 10-8 Ivy League) - It's just the way the Ivy League works; runner-ups are quickly forgotten in the rush to March. So the Tigers, substantially improved on the defensive end in Sydney Johnson's third year, will have to wait until next season to return to glory. Under Johnson's steady control, this group put up a seven-win improvement against the program's 2008-09 performance, allowed just 49 points per game in conference and posted a sterling 10-5 mark on the road for the year. But the real reason for Princeton's early front-runner status in the 2011 Ivy? While three-time champion Cornell was enjoying a busy senior day, the Tigers will return their five top scorers in the fall.

Seattle (17-14, independent) - The 1958 Final Four is just a banner now, and SeattleU is on the way to making new memories. In its first year as a full-fledged Division I member, the Redhawks posted a winning record (not easy when 17 games are on the road) that included two Red Line Upsets away from home (Utah and Oregon State), and presented a high-scoring attack that yielded 80.3 ppg. Seattle's 6-9 powerman Charles Garcia, responsible for much of that (18.7 ppg), has already declared for the NBA Draft. Even if he does get drafted (don't laugh), there were three double-figure scoring guards on this team. The Redhawks forced 18 turnovers per game, third-best in the nation. This team is not going to disappear.