No, seriously, the Big Ten conference might be good.

At the very least, we can laugh at the ACC and Big East, whose middling clubs—like the Louisville Cardinals, Syracuse Orange, and Seton Hall Pirates, to say nothing of First Four club St. John’s—were pantsed in the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament. I will continue beating the drum that, given what we’ve seen so far, Indiana should be in the Dance.

Based on what? Well, the Big Ten showing up and showing out on Day 1 (just don’t squint too hard at Michigan State, OK?)—Minnesota rolled behind whatever the hell that shooting performance was (good edition), Purdue rolled behind whatever the hell that shooting performance was (bad edition), and Maryland escaped its seemingly predestined status as the sexy upset pick.

Can the conference keep it up? I don’t know. At least one Big Ten club should lose today, and a 1-2 finish isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Hell, the conference can go 0-3 and I wouldn’t bat an eye. But yesterday...wow.

Anyways, we’ve got your Big Ten matchups, full tournament schedule and odds, and secondary viewing recommendations below. Maybe a preview snuck in there somewhere. I don’t know. Go nuts!

[10] Iowa Hawkeyes vs. [7] Cincinnati Bearcats

South Regional: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, OH
11:15am | CBS | Cincy -4 | O/U 137.5

I mean, let’s be honest—Cincy will try to tackle Iowa, Iowa will hope that T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant can evade the tacklers and jog to the end zone. Unless Fant is in Ferentz’s doghouse right now.

Either way, Connor McCaffrey walks up in baseball to the Friends theme song, so all’s good in my world.

What other game is on? Well...I’ll be honest. If Iowa can play this game to their tempo, watch that. Oklahoma-Ole Miss may be interesting, though. Otherwise I’ll be watching UC Irvine-Kansas State to see if this game—one with an O/U of one hundred and goddamn nineteen is actually as shitty as advertised.

[5] wisconsin badgers vs. [12] Oregon Ducks

South Regional: SAP Center, San Jose, CA
3:30pm | TBS | wisc -2 | O/U 116.5

This was a number of people’s sexy upset pick. I think. Or maybe it was just mine. I didn’t really read the article, just kinda browsed.

Also, this game’s O/U is one hundred and motherfucking sixteen and a half. 116.5. For a fucking college basketball game. In the Year of Our Lord 2019. Fuck you, Bo Ryan, and your zombie corpse still haunting Big Ten basketball.

What other game is on? If you really want to watch Washington and Utah State play tackle basketball like this game, I’m not going to stop you. But Arizona State-Buffalo promises to be fast, fun, probably stupid, and should be UB pulling away from a team that has Luguentz Dort and not much else. Zylan Cheatham, too, because that’s a fun name. But yeah, Bulls by a dozen.

[11] Ohio State Buckeyes vs. [6] Iowa St. Cyclones

Midwest Regional: Bank of Oklahoma Center, Tulsa, OK
8:50pm | TBS | ISU -5.5 | O/U 140

We didn’t do a preview for Ohio State. Part of that is just that we have two Buckeyes writers (kinda), and one is decidedly not a basketball fan. Part of that is I can’t be bothered to deal with a team who has defied the logic of “I see them playing, they’re not a good team, they won’t make the NCAA Tournament” all season.

Again, a reminder: Northwestern beat this Ohio State team.

What other game is on? If you’d like wrestling, there’s UCF Knights and VCU. I mean, it’s Tacko Fall, and how can you not watch a guy that everyone swears is, like, 7’7” now?

Otherwise there’s Virginia Tech Hokies-Saint Louis Billikens, I guess, but this game could conceivably end in the 40s on both sides. Just stay home.

Yeah, but are there other games?

Sure. Here’s a schedule. Of note, might I recommend the Memphis Tigers and Creighton Bluejays? If you’d like a palate-cleanse of shitty teams fighting for something that doesn’t matter, you could do worse than to tune in to ESPNU and enjoy the show.

Also, there’s MY Drake Bulldogs heading out to [/checks notes] Cedar City to play [/checks notes] the Southern Utah Thunderbirds. That’s only online. I’ll still tune in. Darien DeVries is safe from Nebraska, for now. This is good. Go Drake.

And, as always, here’s your open thread for the day. Don’t burn the place down.