It’s that time of year again. It is time for the nation to be swept away by the frenzy of college basketball games that bring us major upsets and a wide array of craziness. March Madness is here.

This year’s overall No. 1 seed has really made a name for itself and gave us some late season drama to watch. The University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball team remains undefeated to this point despite being involved in a number of tight games. I don’t remember how many times throughout this winter my phone has gone off with ESPN telling me either Kentucky is in a close game or that they barely squeaked by to pull off a victory.

The other No. 1 seeds include Duke, Villanova, and Wisconsin. These teams all have very strong resumes, which include a combined nine losses.

Duke leads that group with four losses. Their most recent came against Notre Dame in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinal game after not losing since late January. The loss to Notre Dame just so happens to be the last game that Duke played.

Wisconsin carries three losses into the NCAA Tournament. The Badgers lost to Duke in early December and also lost to No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region, Maryland.

Villanova has only lost twice. The most noteworthy loss that ‘Nova brings to the tourney is a loss to the No. 4 seed in the South Region, Georgetown, in January.

I feel like one of two things are going to happen to Kentucky. Either they are going to win it all, or they are going to get beat somewhere between the Elite Eight and the championship game.

Sorry coach K but your Blue Devils aren’t going all the way either. I don’t think they are going to be able to pull it off after losing in their conference tournament. Wisconsin obviously has a tough go at it if they have to face Kentucky in the semifinal round. Villanova is playing in the weakest of the four regions and I think they might have a chance to be one of the participants in the National Championship game.

Aside from all the technical analysis, March Madness brings an opportunity for college basketball fanatics or just any person to engage in competition with each other either for money or just for bragging rights.

March Madness brings with it all sorts of bracket challenges and pools where big money can be made. There are challenges such as Quicken Loans’ Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge where they will give any persons who actually put together a perfect bracket $1 billion. The top 20 brackets receive $100,000 towards buying, refinancing, or remodeling a home.

I personally am involved in four pools. I personally know people who are filling out more than 10 brackets. I do not follow along with college basketball throughout the season but it’s still fun to try and play the role of an analyst for a while and see how well my brackets compared to other people’s attempts.

Throwing it back to a column that I wrote a few weeks ago, March Madness is another sign of spring. It marks the end of one of collegiate sports most newsworthy winter sports.

Other collegiate winter sports include hockey and wrestling, but no one ever hears as much about these sports as basketball. I feel like, aside from the Frozen Four, college hockey’s season-ending event, and the NBA Finals and the NHL’s Stanley Cup  Finals, which both run well into the spring season.

March Madness puts the winter sports schedules to bed, hopefully taking Old Man Winter with it.