Introducing the OTP Bracket Challenge

Granted, we're a football blog, but like everyone else this time of year, we're catching basketball fever, spurned on in no small measure by the victories on Thursday by both the Kentucky Wildcats and the Cardinals of Ball State. Because of this said fever, as well as the pending lack of productivity known as March Madness, we've created the OverThePylon March Madness Bracket Pool, run by the good folks over at FunOfficePools.

Friends and readers of OTP are welcome to prove their intelligence and basketball savvy, and other blogs from around the interwebs, feel free to stake your reputation.

To enter the pool, here's what to do:

1. Go to the Fun Office Pools website and register for an account if you don't have it.

• Click here. (FunOfficePools.com if you can't get the link)
• If you're not automatically logged in, then sign in. (If you haven't used it before, create a new account. It's free.)

2. After logging in with your account you have or just created, go to the "Join a Pool" tab at the top.

• Select "March Madness 09" in the "Pool Type" box
• Type "OverThePylon" in the "Pool Name" box
• Leave the "Password" field blank
• Name your entry in the "Selection Name" box. Points for creativity. (This name you don't need to remember. It's simply the name of your team)
• Click "Join Pool"

3. Make your selections after the field is announced on Sunday. Picks have to be in by tip off of the first game on Thursday March 19.

If you've made it through all that and you're seeing a page with OverThePylon at the top, you're registered. Congrats. From that point forward it's simply a matter of gaining familiarity with the various pages and such on the menu of the left hand side of the page.

There's nothing fancy with Cinderella bonuses, picking upsets, so on and so forth. Pick a totally chalk bracket if you dare. You can sign up now, and make your picks later. Let's get it on, folks.