Every year when the March Madness brackets come out, the same brouhaha breaks out about Mid Majors vs. Big BCS Conferences.

This year it is Arkansas, Illinois, Purdue and Stanford standing in for the big conferences vs. Drexel, Appalachian State and a few others (interestingly Syracuse is complaining too this year, rather disingenuously imo - 10-6 in the Big East is not what it used to be because of unbalanced schedules).

The argument it seems to me is simple - by and large the 5th, 6th and 7th place teams in the big conferences will be better than the "deserving" mid major teams. The question is not that for me, it is whether the idea of having the tournament include lesser teams - the 14, 15 and 16 seeds are mostly from tiny conferences where the teams are almost certainly not worthy in conventional terms - extends to the 34 at large bids. But who has a beef here really? Let's think about it on the flip.

I've got some gut shots for the Final Four that will meet in Atlanta.

Florida out of the Midwest. Unless something strange happens, Florida seems to have the easiest region. TChris' team Wisconsin, has lost its center and its swagger. Frankly, their talent level seems a notch below the other top teams to me. While Alando Tucker is obviously very good, I think he is not as good as some want him to be - I think it is a function of talent problems for the Badgers. Neither Oregon nor Maryland seems threatening to Florida to me.

My other Final Four picks are Georgetown, UCLA and Texas A&M. For now. Discussion to come.

Completely off topic, but I've come to conclude that as you get older, downsizing is a fact of life. I've been doing it for several years now. And, with more of us taking charge of our elderly parents' downsizing, we often have to decide what to do with their lifetime accumulation of belongings.

The New York Times this week had a feature article on how we have become a society "hooked on storage."

Many of us pay thousands of dollars a year to store our kids' first drawings, the artifacts we brought back from other countries on vacations, the furniture that will not fit in our downsized homes or apartments.

Is it worth it?

More...

The brackets.

The number one overall seed is the defending champions Florida Gators. Other number 1s were Ohio State, Kansas and surprisingly for me, North Carolina.

UCLA has a beef is you ask me.

Most dangerous 2, imo, Georgetown. 2 most likely to have an early exit? Sorry, TChris, the Badgers of Wisconsin.

Early dark horse (defined as 5 seed or lower?)? I dunno. None that I can see. Let me think some more. Ok, gun to my head - Southern Cal.

My old friends know this is one of my favorite times of the year - the NCAA tournament bracket comes out tonight, March Madness begins.

Who will you be rooting for? And for those who have degrees in bracketology, who do you predict for the 4 No. 1 Seeds?

Games are being played today that could determine the 4 No. 1 seeds. Here are my choices - Ohio State (win or lose over Wisconsin today), Kansas (win or lose over Texas today), UCLA (despite 2 straight losses to end their regular season), Florida (if they beat Arkansas OR if NC State beats North Carolina). Two teams that might be whining about this? Wisconsin and the Tar Heels. They could win and still be 2 seeds.

This is an Open Thread. Feel free to bring other very important issues to the table.

If you enjoy holidays that are celebrated on a bar stool, mark March 9 on your calendar. It's the second annual Get Over It Day.

“Not getting into the college you wanted, losing a job - everybody’s got something to get over,” said [Jeff] Goldblatt, 29, who came up with the concept in 2005 while recovering from a difficult breakup. “Everybody’s got to say, it’s time to move on, get over it.”

It’s a make-your-own holiday in which participants devise their own, sometimes vindictive, traditions. A group of young women in New York last year burned photographs of their ex-boyfriends in a bonfire, inspiring Goldblatt to create an animated fire pit on the [holiday's] Web site. Complaints lodged in the pit range from the trivial (“I lost my favorite red stapler”) to the political (“the government is stupid and nonsensical”) and the tragic (“my father passed away”), with each injustice satisfyingly churned into the flames.

From the NYTimes:

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., the historian whose more than 20 books shaped discussions for two generations about America’s past and who himself was a provocative, unabashedly liberal partisan, most notably in serving in the Kennedy White House, died last night in Manhattan. He was 89.

. . . Twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, Mr. Schlesinger exhaustively examined the administrations of two prominent presidents, Andrew Jackson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, against a vast background of regional and economic rivalries. He strongly argued that strong individuals like Jackson and Roosevelt could bend history.

John Amaechi, former NBA player and UConn Penn State star, disclosed that he is gay. Dan LeBatard wrote:

"I feel exhausted already," he said. "All this is about to happen, this complete unknown. I like structure. I've planned my entire life to this point. This wasn't in there. I'm in the vehicle, but I'm a passenger now. There is no driver. But I did choose to open the door and get in, and it's the right choice for a number of reasons. I'm sure that will become plain soon." It just wasn't plain in the moment. What's the saying? Courage isn't the absence of fear but the ability to overcome it? Amaechi has never been so scared, which says plenty. Consider: When asked if he ever felt free in the NBA, he said, "Never. Just lonely and isolated and afraid." The biggest relief in his career? When he got the call that it was over. He felt, in his words, "the deepest and most profound of sighs -- every muscle in my body relaxing at once."

What an indictment on the homophobia that permeates sports. And Tim Hardaway, unapologetically confirmed that bigotry, flatly stating that he would not want Amaechi as a teammate and that homosexuality simply should not exist period.

I guess Timmy never heard of the ancient Olympics. But of course, in many ways, this was the attitude Karl Malone reflected when he balked at Magic Johnson's return to the NBA after he had retired when he was diagnosed as carrying the AIDS virus.

Just an ugly reminder of how far we still have to travel as a society.

The New York Times has an interesting article in the travel section on Cuba's Jewish population, now estimated at 1,500. I thought this was interesting:

[Adela Dworin, president of the Jewish community in Cuba]...had the opportunity to meet Mr. Castro in 1998, and asked him why he had never visited the Jewish community, to which he replied: “Because I was never invited.” Ms. Dworin promptly invited him to the coming Hanukkah celebration at the Patronato. When Mr. Castro asked what Hanukkah was, Ms. Dworin explained that the holiday celebrates the “revolution” — a word Castro likes — of the Jewish people.

To her surprise, Mr. Castro showed up at the party of 200, sat next to her in the front row and addressed the congregation in a lengthy speech.

A record one million people are expected in Times Square tonight to celebrate the new year. Mayor Bloomberg says people will be safer there than any other place Here are the logistics:

Police will control access to Times Square, closing streets to vehicles beginning at 3:30 p.m.
Anyone wishing to enter the "core area" will be required to pass through metal detectors first, and then be corralled into viewing sections.

Once one section has filled, new arrivals will be directed to the next viewing section. Backpacks, large bags and alcohol will be prohibited. There are also no public bathrooms in the "core area."

As for security,

Regular police units will be supplemented by emergency service squads, drug- and bomb-sniffing canine units, counter-terrorism personnel and the FBI. Representatives of New York's Office of Emergency Management and Fire Department will be in the square, and police in helicopters will monitor the skies and rooftops.

I don't doubt it will be safe, but I'd still rather watch it on tv than be there.

I have resisted buying either a Blackberry or a Treo for years. I'm not part of a corporate structure and I'm online at a computer more hours than offline anyway. I also don't use text messaging. I mostly use my cell phone for outgoing calls and very few people have the number. The plan I'm on costs $39 a month and I never go over the limit. So, what's the advantage?

Well..the TL kid was home for the holidays this week and semi-complaining about his age-old Nokia cell phone. And it is a real dinosaur. I've been using a Motorola Razor phone, which I've never liked -- it's an awkward thumb movement and I like popup keys rather than the Razor's flat keys -- so we went to a Cingular store in the mall the day after Christmas.

I ended up buying the new Treo 680 for me, and giving him my Razor. It was a simple switch of Sim cards.

Congratulations to Monica Lewinsky, who just graduated from the London School of Economics with a master of science degree in social psychology. Her thesis topic was: In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third Person Effect and Pre-Trial Publicity."

You Go. Girl. More power to you. I spent years on tv night after night sticking up for you (and trashing Linda Tripp) and I'm glad it turned out so well for you. Your mother may have gotten the rawest deal of all, getting called to a grand jury to disclose mother-daughter secrets, but she was there for you. Your parents got you good lawyers, once you got past the Ginsberg guy who wanted to be on every sunday news show every Sunday.

You came out of this classy and rose above it and came out in tact. If you are pondering what to do next, let me suggest law school.

I expect we'll be reading more about you in the years to come. Kudos for rising above the media nastiness and going to a better place with a stronger sense of self. Good luck to you in the future.