It's the most wonderful time of the year....

Below is my annual "Ode to March Madness." I've waited all year for tomorrow's viewing extravaganza, and it's finally here. And the fact that Michigan is in the tourney, and the fact our President is on ESPN filling out a bracket, makes this one of the tournaments I've been most excited about.

I'm interested to hear everyone's stories about how they've enjoyed the first day of the tourney. Leave them in the comments section.

Without further ado...

Tomorrow is the greatest weekday for sports viewing out of the entire year.

At noon, the NCAA tournament and its 64 team field will begin its frantic run for the national championship. It is arguably the greatest day to be a fan because for the next two days, college basketball games will be running for almost 12 hours, starting at noon and ending around 12:15am. Say "Good-bye" to soap operas, and "Hello" to Gus Johnson.

Some of my favorite memories from middle school and high school were on this day when the guys would sneak to the teachers lounge to catch part of the game at lunch time and then take 6 bathroom breaks per class period to keep checking the scores. My religion teacher probably thought I had the prostate of a sixty-eight year old man. This was obviously before the days of laptop computers, and the widely used strategy of college students who bring the computer to watch the games on-demand. Last year, I got to witness a great early round upset by Davidson while in "Media Effects" class, because of the on-demand program from CBS.

I'm not going to remember what was said that day in class a year from now, but I'll always remember what Steph Curry did for his team in that first game during his team's run to the Elite Eight.

We all enjoy March Madness. Even if people don't follow college basketball, they are still filling out a bracket or flipping a coin to decide on who they should pick. Watching the evening games with friends is one of the best things about all the coverage. It brings together people who you might not have seen since this time last year, but you still remain the best of friends because of The Tourney and your annual NCAA pool. So with that...

Let the Madness begin.