This year's Madness comp will be at the same site as last year. A bracket for 2011 has been setup once again at cbssports.com .. for those of us who played last year, you're half-way there, as invite emails have been sent by csbssports.com to all of last year's participants (using last year's email addresses); the email shows your reg'd ID.

The scoring system remains unchanged. There are 63 games in this comp; we pick all of them in one go on the cbssports.com website: 1st Round (32 games) : 1 pt 2nd Round (16 games) : 2 pts 3rd Round ( 8 games) : 3 pts (regional semis ) Sweet Sixteen 4th Round ( 4 games) : 4 pts (regional finals) Elite Eight 5th Round ( 2 games) : 6 pts (national semis ) Final Four 6th Round ( 1 game ) : 9 pts (national final) Seedings: additional pts added for each correct pick, being the team's seed.

Location: http://www.cbssports.com/login/ftmm.mayhem
Group password: [removed]

If you've sucessfully logged in, you will see this in the top LH corner of the screen:
March Madness at FT
2011 Tipping Comp

• if you'd like to join the Madness tipping comp but do not have a cbssports ID, there's a link on that page to register. You must have a cbs ID to play in this comp! Please note - you may, but don't have to, use your real name to register (surname, first name); but pick something for those two fields that looks like your FT username (so that we know who you are).
  
• this also applies to those who played last year, but can't remember their ID and/or have changed their email address and thus can't retrieve their password (which they've forgotten) .. you will need to re-register.
  
• please check your reg'd email address in your account settings/profile after you login.

This year's tipping comp is the 10th edition of March Madness (strewth, where have those 10 years gone). No one has retained their title in this comp, and no one has won it twice (but some have been on the podium twice). The defending title-holder is illiniman14 (silver and bronze went to LeoDaVinci and jonnowales) .. the winner of the 2008 comp, ralzzz, holds the record for the biggest winning margin (see summary tables of last 9 comps at end of this post) .. and doomed won bronze that year the hard way; he failed to pick any of the Final Four! Howie72 holds the record for the most correct picks with 51/63, achieved in the 2007 comp. 2002 LordAndry gtho4 TemplarLLM 2003 izzi gtho4 rudogg 2004 wez Sarah606 gtho4 2005 ElfTwinkle kevinatilusa linkan 2006 Blinkybill LeoDaVinci ElfTwinkle 2007 Howie72 dg_dave Nannanut 2008 ralzzz LeoDaVinci doomed 2009 jonnowales dg_dave Sypher 2010 illiniman14 LeoDaVinci jonnowales btw have a look at the silver medal for the last 5 years .. dg_dave and LeoDaVinci have been playing musical chairs.

The Madness starts on Thu 17-Mar-2011 and the final is on Mon 4-Apr-2011. The bracket will open for tipping when the field is inserted by cbssports.com, which should happen on Sun 13-Mar-11 (same day as Round One of the F1GP tipping comp, in Bahrain). However, the last four teams to qualify will not be known until Monday and Tuesday (they will enter the comp as the four #16 seeds); btw a #16w seed has never won a game against their #1 seed opponents since the NCAA started the current Madness format in 1985): www.collegebasketballtournament.net/

Last Four play-in: Mon/Tue 15/16 March
First Round:   Thu-Fri March 17-18
Second Round:  Sat-Sun March 19-20
Third Round:   Thu-Fri March 24-25
Fourth Round:  Sat-Sun March 26-27
Final Four:    Saturday 2 April
Championship:  Monday 4th April
Final Four play-offs at Reliant Stadium, Houston TX
Deadline: cbssports/com will close the bracket
of 63 picks at noon EDT on Thursday 17 March.

Good luck remembering your password (if you receive the email) or your ID (if you're reg'd but have changed your email address) .. and good luck registering if you're new! To confirm you're in and that everything's hunky dory, please post in the Group Message Board (it's in the Brackets drop-down menu).
Rankings: http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1

2002		2003		2004		2005		2006
Lord Andry gtho4 TemplarLLM Sypher thejazzkickazz	38 64 39 62 37 60 34 58 35 56	izzi gtho4 rudogg marchmadness ElfTwinkle	46 59 45 53 42 49 40 47 39 47	wez Sarah606 gtho4 izzi JuniorTheJaws	37 216 39 212 41 208 40 195 28 185	ElfTwinkle kevinatilusa . . linkan Sarah606 Blinkybill	43 220 41 212 38 194 37 183 26 181	Blinkybill LeoDaVinci ElfTwinkle . . gtho4 dg_dave	32 205 33 189 39 189 36 184 34 181
2007		2008		2009		2010		2011
Howie72 dg_dave Nannanut Blinkybill DakotaNorth	51 260 50 253 50 244 48 235 47 226	ralzzz LeoDaVinci doomed Nannanut JuniorTheJaws	46 243 43 223 42 215 44 213 43 212	jonnowales dg_dave Sypher ralzzz LeoDaVinci	49 256 46 248 47 238 44 219 42 218	illiniman14 LeoDaVinci jonnowales themonarch kevinatilusa . .	39 223 39 221 39 219 39 213 38 210

YAY !! Managed to remember my login and password !!

I'm in! Navigated my way to sign in.

I'm in again for a bit of madness

Well, I'd say it's just about time for a repeat winner

I'm in, new name though, no clue what my old PW was.

Don't forget to post in the message board there, else you won't be counted!

I rememebered my login, but not my password. All now reset and tickety-boo.

I'm in, no point in spamming everyone with a message there.

Yup....forgot the password but got in again...reserving the cellar space for myself....

I just posted there took me a while to get in there but I did and can't wait to see how much of my brackets are going to be wrong .

I'll give it a go

so far we have a field of 12 runners

BxBarracuda . . dg_dave George95 gtho4 illiniman14 LeoDaVinci N-Bomb ozzz2002 srini701 Sypher szabs themonarch

 =   have signed in at cbssports.com

I think I have managed to remember my password so should hopefully be ready for another year.

I'm in! Finally got my password sorted out. Still have no clue what it was...lol. Picking March Madness is about as easy as picking bowl games (up there with picking heads or tails...)

I believe the brackets go live on Sunday.

Yes, the tournament seeding is revealed and the brackets are set on Sunday night

acceptances are now in from 14 runners

BxBarracuda . . dg_dave George95 gtho4 illiniman14 LeoDaVinci linkan N-Bomb ozzz2002 Sarah606 srini701 Sypher szabs themonarch

 =   have signed in at cbssports.com

gtho4 did you add me to the list?

oops, someone can't count
acceptances are now in from 15 runners:

BxBarracuda . . dg_dave George95 gtho4 illiniman14 LeoDaVinci linkan N-Bomb ozzz2002 rxbigdawg Sarah606 srini701 Sypher szabs themonarch

 =   have signed in at cbssports.com

Looks like I have not been accepted....lol

far out, it's been a bad week

we've now reached 16 runners!

BxBarracuda . . dg_dave George95 gtho4 Howie72 illiniman14 LeoDaVinci linkan N-Bomb ozzz2002 rxbigdawg Sarah606 srini701 Sypher szabs themonarch

 =   have signed in at cbssports.com

I'm in as well.

I can't see you over at CBS .. have you registered at cbssports.com ?

Brackets are live, I think games we are picking start on Thursday 10 A.M. FT Time..