With the field of 68 announced on Sunday, Mar. 13, the only thing left for fans to do before the Tournament starts is to fill out their brackets.
However, this year is different because with the tournament expanded from 65 teams to 68, fans of college basketball will only have one day to complete their projections before the first rounds begins on Tuesday, Mar. 15.
"It will be more difficult to fill out brackets because there is two less days to complete them," said junior Chris Regan.
With only one day to complete brackets before the premier college basketball tournament begins, Turner Sports has announced the first ever National Bracket Day to be held on Monday, Mar. 14, to help fill out brackets.
"The day is designated to celebrate the upcoming NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship and urge fans to fill out their brackets before the first round of the tournament begins on Tuesday, March 15 on truTV," from a Turner Sports press release.
The center of the day is the bracket lounge inside the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle in New York City. The lounge features four large screen TV's for each tournament game, computers to access NCAA.com and bracket games, along with updated brackets and interactive basketball shooting games.
"National Bracket Day is a rallying cry to fans of one of the most exciting and participatory sporting events of the year to use their time on March 14 wisely before the celebration of March Madnesstips off the following day," said Christina Miller, senior vice president of Turner Sports strategy, marketing and programming.
Along with the bracket lounge multiple street crews in major cities around the country, including New York City, will be distributing brackets for the 2011 NCAA Division One Men's Basketball Tournament.
Turner Sports also announced earlier this year that every single game of the tournament will be shown live in its entirety on national TV, letting he viewers the choice of which game to watch.
"The tournament will be even more interesting than it already is, since we can watch any game whenever it's on," said sophomore Danny Jones.
In addition to CBS showing the games, TBS, TNT, and truTV, will also show the games to allow the viewer to pick their game on the channel that the game is on.
The Division One Men's Basketball Tournament will begin with two opening round games on Tuesday and Wednesday before the rest of the field starts on Thursday.
Stephen Valenti can be reached at stephen.valenti@student.shu.edu
