E.K. NATION

There is no crying in sports...unless you have the same NCAA bracket predictions as we do. In that case, the tears will flow like wine. Salut!

One thing about us that you should know when ignoring these predictions: We lose a Final Four team, every year, on the first day of the NCAA tournament. It almost always happens. We could have considered picking four Final Four teams who open the tourney on Friday, but we didn't think that far ahead. Consequently, two of our Final Four picks play in the very first group of games early Thursday morning. Hurrah, us.

MIDWEST: First Round: Florida, Arizona, Old Dominion, Maryland, Notre Dame, Oregon, Georgia Tech, Wisconsin. Second Round: Florida, Maryland, Oregon, Georgia Tech. Regional semis: Maryland, Oregon. REGIONAL CHAMPION: MARYLAND.

WEST: First Round: Kansas, Villanova, Virginia Tech, Holy Cross, VCU, Pittsburgh, Gonzaga, UCLA. Second Round: Villanova, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, UCLA. Regional semis: Virginia Tech, UCLA. REGIONAL CHAMPION: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES.

EAST: First Round: North Carolina, Michigan State, Arkansas, New Mexico State, George Washington, Oral Roberts, Boston College, Georgetown. Second Round: North Carolina, Arkansas, George Washington, Boston College. Sweet 16: North Carolina, Boston College. REGIONAL CHAMPION: BOSTON COLLEGE.

SOUTH: First Round: Ohio State, Xavier, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisville, Texas A&M, Nevada, Memphis. Second Round: Ohio State, Tennessee, Louisville, Memphis. Sweet 16: Ohio State, Memphis. REGIONAL CHAMPION: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.

FINAL FOUR: Maryland defeats UCLA, Ohio State defeats Boston College.

NATIONAL CHAMPION: THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY.

So the first round upsets include VCU over Duke, Holy Cross over Southern Illinois, Old Dominion over Butler, Arkansas over USC, New Mexico State over Texas, and Oral Roberts over Washington State. Upset specials for later on include Villanova defeating Kansas and Georgia Tech beating Wisconsin in the second round; Maryland beating Florida, Oregon and UCLA in rapid succession; and Boston College getting all the way to the Final Four.

We expect that in real life, however, both Maryland and Boston College will lose in the very first session on Thursday, in keeping with our great ability to absolutely coolerize teams we pick. There is a reason this segment of the blog is called The Pinata. Except that we get no candy when our bracket gets busted.