BYU, USU basketball: How will locals land in the NCAA bracket?

March is boxing February out of the way and making room for thefavorite sporting event, for many, of the entire year. With threegames left in college basketball conference play, March Madness willsoon take over office chatter and computer desktops everywhere.

Fans want to know: Where will BYU land in the 2011 tournament? IsUtah State a sure thing to make the field or does the team have moreto accomplish before it can rest easy? Some of those questionscannot be answered yet with Saturday's BYU vs. SDSU game and USU'scontest against Idaho yet to happen.

But whatever those results, because of BYU's success and nationalmedia exposure, the 2011 edition of the annual event will likelybring more interest than ever in Utah, or at least since the RickMajerus-led Utes made noise in the NCAA basketball tournamentannually. Cougar and Aggie fans nation wide will also be emotionallyinvested.

Not all that long ago, selection for the field of 64 (grown thisyear to 68) was mostly a one-day affair for sports fans tuned intotelevision. In the clip linked to on YouTube of the 1987 show, thebroadcaster actually promises to go slowly so the audience can"write it all down". Enjoy the selection announcement music and lookfor TCU, BYU, Reggie Miller and games at the Special Events Centerin Salt Lake City.

Tournament projections are still talked about on television butthe internet has made it a process that lasts at least allbasketball season if not an all-year process for the most ardentfans. What may have seemed like guesswork years ago has become ascience that can be predicted with a high degree of success.

Our own Mike Sorensen, a vet reporter during all of Utah's gloryyears, believes the Cougars could go as high as a No. 2 seed thisseason if it wins out.

Is that a realistic projection? NYDailyNews.com thinks it mightbe just a little low. At least one of its writers think the Cougarsor Aztecs could end up even higher.

An ESPN blog doesn't think that is a crazy notion at all andraises the issue of a glass ceiling for the MWC. It also quotes DaveRose about why MWC might get less consideration.

The Selection Committee, trying to earn a little sympathy forfrom journalists, have been inviting a mock committee to go throughthe process of selecting a field in the course of a few days. Itturns out the media, vocal and critical of teams that get in andteams that get left out, doesn't understand the process very well.

Another good, simplified version of the process of journalistsfor the public comes from the Kansas City Star.

To make a long story short, there are a number of good links tokeep track of and follow between now and Selection Sunday. Here is alist of some of the very best ones for fans who can't get enoughbracket prognostication. Enjoy!

Mock brackets:

thehoopsreport.com/mock-bracket

thehoopsreport.com/bracket

Constant and updated bracket info and discussion:

bracketology101.blogspot.com

ESPN's Joe Lunardi

Real Time RPI (ratings performance index)

Bleacher Report

Sports Illustrated

2010 results with upsets at www.bracketscience.com