So thanks to my Beloved Bulldogs, I’ve spent the better part of 48 hours trying to keep my blood pressure from skyrocketing. It’s SEC tournament time, and the ‘Dogs have fought through a couple of tough match-ups against Florida and Vandy to secure a spot in tomorrow’s Championship Game. Who will we play? Oh, a little team called Kentucky. You may have heard of them. They are kind of good.

And just FYI: today I stood in my kitchen and watched every single second of our game against Vandy on the little bitty TV on the kitchen counter. There were a couple of reasons for this decision: 1) I am crazy and 2) It’s easier to jump up and down if you’re already standing. I’m sure you understand.

Anyway, obviously I’m mighty excited for my Bulldogs, who have been on the bubble of the NCAA tourney for the last few weeks but hopefully secured a spot with today’s win. I’m hoping for a great game tomorrow, especially since we came so close to beating Kentucky when we played them in Starkville about a month ago.

The last couple of days have gotten me totally excited about Selection Sunday and March Madness, so I thought I’d take a cue from something we did last year and set up a group for ESPN’s Tournament Challenge. Once again our group name is BooMama because I am deeply original and never, ever repetitive. The group is public, so you don’t need a password to join – but you will need to set up an account on espn.com if you don’t have one already (and it’s free, by the way).

Whoever wins our bracket will receive a fabulous prize (Kat won last year). Now granted, I have absolutely no idea what this year’s prize will be, but you may rest assured that it will be as fabulous as fabulous can be. Which means that it will probably be an iTunes or Amazon gift card, because that’s about as fabulous a prize as I can come up with right off the top of my head.

I never claimed to be extravagant, y’all. Or even clever, for that matter.

So. You can join the group now, and as soon as the Selection Sunday show is over, you can start making your picks online. Or you can print out your bracket, analyze each team’s stats and players and then make your picks online.

Me? I typically make my picks based on 1) blind conference loyalty 2) which city I like better between the two cities represented or 3) which mascot would win in some sort of toe-to-toe wrestling match. It’s all very scientific.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments. And if you join, let me know that in the comments, too, so I’ll know who’s who when I look at the bracket. After all, it’s important to know who’s who if we’re all going to be March Madness BFFs.

Oh, I cannot wait for all the basketball fun.

Happy Brackets, everybody!

A couple of you left comments on my last post asking if I was going to set up a group for March Madness picks on ESPN’s Tournament Challenge. And honestly, I wasn’t planning on it, but the more I thought about it, the more I decided that it would be quite the kick in the pants for the teens of us who might be interested in such a thing.

So I set up a group. And since I’m the only member of the group right now, I would obviously love for you to join me.

Here’s how it works. Go to ESPN’s Tournament Challenge. If you don’t have an ESPN account, you’ll have to create one (seconds! it takes mere seconds!). Once you’re logged in, you can search for groups, and my group is called – GET READY – BooMama.

Obviously I’ve scored major points on the originality front.

Once you’ve joined the group and made your bracket picks, you need to make sure that you print out your bracket so that you can put it on your refrigerator and astound and amaze the people in your life with your basketball savvy. Be sure to throw around terms like “RPI” and “strength of schedule” and “body of work,” and the next thing you know your family members will be calling ESPN so that you can be a special commentator on the SportsCenter.

But here’s the best part.

When it’s all said and done, I’ll send a special prize (read: some CDs and such) to the person in our group who does the best with her (or his – the menfolk are welcome, too) bracket. In the event of a tie, well, I have no idea what I’ll do. But I’ll figure it out in due time and it’ll all be big fun, now won’t it?

If you have any questions, just let me know in the comments. And if you’re ready to get started with your bracket, then head on over to ESPN.

p.s. If you join the group, you’ll be able to look at my bracket.

p.p.s. After you look at my bracket, please don’t make fun of me.

p.p.p.s. Because sometimes, if I don’t know much about the teams in a certain game, I go with the mascot that I think is cuter.

p.p.p.p.s. Really. Please don’t make fun of me.