For some conferences the madness has already begun with opening round games underway. Indeed, by the close of this weekend, a handful of conference champions will be crowned getting an early start to prepare for every school’s common goal of the season: reaching the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

Most of the larger, well known conferences will hold their tournaments next week, crowning their respective champions the following Saturday or Sunday. That second day of the weekend is known as Selection Sunday, the high holy day for the gods of college basketball.

The NCAA tournament is stacked to favor the larger conferences as it should, given that the best programs can be found in the Big East, SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Pac 10 and Big 12 conferences. But some of the smaller or mid-major conferences traditionally have one team who can play with the big boys, offering a juicy spoiler in the first or second round of the tournament.

On occasion viewers get lucky and are treated to a heroic team such as a Stephen Curry-led Davidson, who comes oh so close to reaching the Final Four.  Even if you’re a big conference fan you can’t help but root for the underdog, especially one who has a future NBA star leading the charge.

ESPN is famous for espousing the science of bracketology, the Joe Lunardi theorem that supposes to pinpoint which “on the bubble” teams may actually make the tournament and which ones will miss out. Most importantly, the science to determine tournament seeding is the central part of this art, one that can help faithful obtain a reasonable guess where their school will be placed.

Of the conference games going on right now, I see the following six schools winning it all and heading to the big tournament which gets started in two weeks:

Big Sky — Weber State avenged its lone conference loss in the last game of the Big Sky regular season, handily beating Montana State by 20 points.  As long as they don’t look ahead, the Wildcats should breeze through the tournament which begins on Saturday.

Horizon — This mid-major conference routinely serves up a high quality team, but this year it isn’t Valparaiso. Butler is ranked #22 in the nation and at 25-3, has four players who routinely contribute ten or more points per game for a balanced attack.

Missouri Valley — Creighton finished the regular season with ten straight wins and should have enough to get to the tournament with an at-large berth. But, given that the ACC and Big East will likely each bring eight teams, the Bluejays know that winning the MVC may be their only assurance of getting in.

Southern — I can’t imagine Davidson having to settle for an at-large berth in this year’s tournament. Then again, they lost to The Citadel and College of Charleston in league play, showing that they are vulnerable. Don’t expect Curry to have a let down — Davidson will be back, but they won’t necessarily be the crowd favorite this year.

Sun Belt — Western Kentucky and Arkansas-Little Rock both won their divisions, finishing 15-3 in league play. But their balanced attack, led by guard A.J. Slaughter gives them just the sort of edge needed to emerge as conference champion on Tuesday.

West Coast — #14 Gonzaga is clearly the best of the mid-major schools in the country, a Pac 10 quality program that can play with just about anyone. Since its 18-point loss last month to Memphis, the Zags have won seven straight and finished at 14-0 in the conference. Saint Mary’s matched the Zags 24-5 regular season record, however, and will only get to the NCAA tournament if they win the conference tournament.  Still, I like Gonzaga in a very close final.

That’s it — March Madness is unfolding, so sit back and enjoy what will likely be a fun month culminating in an early April Final Four in Detroit.

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Men’s basketball is a strange beast with strong teams scheduling weak teams in a bid to pad their win totals going into league play. By the time January rolls around, many teams already have at least ten wins with just another ten or twelve needed to qualify for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. But beating up on the little guys is no proof of later success — how many times have we seen a team start off with a 10-2 record only to end up with a losing season or falling short of a post season berth? Plenty!

This year the odds on favorite is the UNC Tarheels, one of three terrific teams in my area (Duke and NC State being the other two). North Carolina is the unanimous choice in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today Polls, a testament to just how good the team is this year. After losing to the Kansas Jayhawks 84-66 in the last championship game, Carolina is ready to rebound and take it all. And, thanks to ongoing great recruiting, future teams look to be topflight as well.

As dominating as the Tarheels appear on paper, the conference with the strongest teams appears to be the Big East. This year, the conference has four pre-season Top Ten picks with UCONN and Louisville #2 and #3 respectively followed by Pittsburgh at #5 and Notre Dame coming in at #9 (AP poll). Marquette, Georgetown, and Villanova are three more Big East teams in the Top 25, reflecting just how deep the conference is.

Davidson, which was the Cinderella team the last season won’t be surprising anyone this year. Pollsters have pegged the Wildcats to finish #20 which would guarantee a fairly high seed in the tournament. Credit Stephen Curry with the Wildcats success, a team that nearly knocked off eventual champion Kansas in the Final 8 last year.

Early season games are often played within tournaments which are created to stir up fan interest and give fans a warm place to travel to. A noticeable exception to a warm place is the annual Great Alaska Shootout, a one-time big time contest that got a lot of attention and brought in teams from all over the country. Alas, cold temperatures and difficulty getting to Alaska has taken its toll on the tournament and this year ESPN has decided not to show the tournament. Give it one more year and it’ll be R.I.P.

By the beginning of the year, you’ll start to see endless ads touting the “Road to the Final Four” which will be played in Detroit in April. Games will be played on a court plunked down in the middle of Ford Field (home to the NFL Lions) which will allow a record 70,000 people to watch all three games. Naturally, viewing any game from the nosebleed section will require binoculars but for rabid sportsmen, they’ll take all of that in stride.

The first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Tournament is over and some of the teams left standing are surprising. Yes, all four top seeds have advanced, but some of the lower seeds including Duke and Georgetown have hung up their shoes for the season.

The teams able to survive this weekend’s games will advance to the Final Four, a heady proposition for four teams not expected to still be playing this late in the season. Let’s take a look at the Fab Four and their chances for extending their seasons:

Davidson — Beating Gonzaga in the first round was a nice achievement, not an entirely unexpected feat for the Davidson Wildcats. Led by Stephen Curry who scored 40 points against the Zags, Curry dumped in another 30 points when the Cats shocked Georgetown in the second round. Next up: Wisconsin, a Big Ten team that coasted in its first two contests — look for a strong battle with the Badgers gaining the upper hand down the stretch.

Western Kentucky — The Sun Belt Conference champs are probably more of a surprise than Davidson for getting this far. Tyrone Brazelton led WK with 33 points, but if you’ve been watching ESPN then you’ve seen Ty Rogers 3-pointer in overtime which pulled out the opening round victory over Drake. Next up: #1 UCLA — WK season over!

West Virginia – One of two Big East surprises still standing, the Mountaineers dispatched of Arizona, then Duke to reach the Sweet 16. Although not as dominate as Georgetown, Marquette, or Louisville in conference play, WVU has the talent and the size to go deep this year. Next up: Xavier, the class of the Atlantic 10. I’m going with the Mountaineers who would then face-off with UCLA for the West Regional championship.

Villanova — Barely making it to the tournament as a the final of eight Big East teams selected, the Wildcats have shown their mettle and are once again in the Sweet 16. A dramatic come-from-behind win over #4 Clemson underscored that Villanova is always a threat, a team that has survived the test of Big East play. Next up: Kansas, the #1 seed for the Midwest regional. I see a dogfight down to the very end, with Kansas barely escaping.

Of the four teams, I see West Virginia with having the best chances of advancing to the Final Four, but with UCLA in the way, a Final Eight showing may be it.