We're Finally Here

What's better - the Super Bowl or today? The correct answer is Day 1 of March Madness. Games start a little after noon, and two new teams will tip off basically every hour from 12:15PM EST all the way up until 10PM. Hopefully you don't have too many meetings on the calendar, and even more importantly, don't be that guy that starts out 0/3 😅

• Before we get into it, feel free to join the Overtime March Madness Bracket. It's free to join and we'll be giving away apparel to some of the top finishers

Now just to get it out there, I'm not here to give you bracket advice. No one knows anything and there is nothing worse than changing your pick because an "expert" tweeted something, and then your original pick ends up being right. Instead, I wanted to call out a few interesting March Madness tidbits/facts/trends that might help you finalize your picks 👇

• In 10 of the last 11 tournaments the First Four games have existed, at least one of its at-large participants has advanced to the second round. Can Pittsburgh or Arizona State get it done?

• At least one top-4 seed has lost in the first round in 13 of the past 14 tournaments

• Each of the past four No. 3 seeds to lose to a No. 14 seed came from the Big 12. This applies to Baylor and Kansas State this year

• At least one No. 12 seed has defeated a No. 5 seed in 32 of the 37 tournaments

• This one is weird: At-large teams that finished four games under .500 in conference play are 5-0 in the first round. This stat applies to West Virginia this year

• No defending champion has advanced past the Sweet 16 since Florida repeated in 2007. All eyes are on Kansas

As always, CBS, truTV, TNT and TBS will be airing all the games for the next two weeks. I'm sure you already know this, but here's what today's lineup looks like with the odds of each game 📺

Best four days of the year starts today, good luck to you all but your national champion will probably lose by Sunday. That's just the way it goes in March 😨

Today's Opening Games

If you were looking to get off to a hot start, the first three games of the day won't make it easy. The 8/9 matchup between Power-5 conferences is always a toss up, Furman is a popular upset pick vs. Virginia and Utah State is the only 10 seed favored in the 7/10 games 👀

We mentioned this stat earlier - at-large teams that finished four games under .500 in conference play are 5-0 in the first round. West Virginia fits the bill, and gets to a play a Maryland team that went 11-9 in the Big 10, a much worse conference than the Big 12. Plus, the Terps can't win away from home (2-9 on the road) and have lost three of their last four...

Lastly, we have Furman vs. UVA in the 4/13 matchup. Virginia has a top-10 defense, but only averages 67.8 PPG (279th in the country) and shockingly, the Cavaliers haven't won a tournament game since the 2019 National Championship vs. Texas Tech. Keep an eye on 39-year-old HC Bob Richey, he's been with Furman since 2017 and boasts and 138-53 overall record. A tournament win might get him a new job ✌️

There's plenty of games to bet on today, take a look at the odds for the full slate and where the lines are at for the three that kick it off

👉 All Odds For Thursday's Games

• No. 9 West Virginia vs. No. 8 Maryland: 12:15PM EST on CBS

• No. 4 Virginia vs. No. 13 Furman: 12:40PM on truTV

• No. 10 Utah State vs. No. 7 Missouri: 1:40PM on TNT

For My Parlay Gurus

I took Virginia in my survivor pool, but I don't actually think they are good. Furman with the points feels like the right bet (+5.5), not going to touch it though. Instead I'm going with West Virginia and Utah State - Vegas seems to know something about this Aggies team. Not a clue what it is but what the hell 👇

• West Virginia -2.5 vs. Maryland: -108

• Utah State -1.5 vs Missouri: -114

$100 on this bet would win you $262 — if we hit, make sure you email [email protected] for a chance to win up to $100*. Many will enter, only some will win 😉

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