Mythical and Historical March Madness on Pokes Report

I know it's not the same, not even close, but I refuse to let my March (and April) go by without some madness and we're going to have it.

© Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

STILLWATER -- You know Gallagher-Iba would be a great site for one of our regionals. Tomorrow Pokes Report will begin our efforts to keep you entertained in a sports vein, but in a world that for the next few weeks is going to be primarily sports barreb. The COVID 19 virus has left virtually all professional, collegiate, and even prep sports calendars empty. 

We are going to have a mythical NCAA Basketball Tournament. Since it is mythical, that means I can make a few changes, take a few liberties. Now, we're not going to play it with classic teams. We are using this basketball season, but since the conference tournaments were not fully completed, we might make a few projections that could change the expected field slightly. 

C'mon, you really think that Pokes Report would have a mythical tournament and leave out Mike Boynton and the Pokes. We projected some very possible results from Kansas City that didn't actually get played.

The other major changes:

1. No first four. I've never been a huge fan. We just went with less at-large selections. We will present 64 teams.

2. We will stick with the first move the NCAA made and that is no fans at the games. As a result we will limit travel some by having each of the regionals played all at one site each. Instead of the scheduled sites, we have selected four vintage buildings wiht lots of NCAA history to host each regional and give the top seed a really solid geographical advantage. For one, top seed, a home court advantage. We make the rules.

3. The Elite Eight will all move on to our Final Four site in order to give that site seven games to be played there. It too is a historical building with lots of great history in it. 

4. The field will be announced on selection Sunday and the games results will come out on the corresponding days the actual tournament, had it been played, were scheduled. We have isolated some key statistical components to use an weight our results, but they will also have a degree of chance to them. There will be some upsets. 

I think you will find some interesting subplots in our tournament and I only wish I could have real games to share with you, but we will do our best to give you a little frivolity and entertainment March Madness style. 

A little spoiler alert, here is the Power Five Conference breakdown:

Big 12 - 6 teams

Big Ten - 12 teams

ACC - 4 teams

SEC - 4 teams

Pac-12 - 3 teams