This is an exciting time of year for sports fans.

Actually, it’s an exciting time of year even for those who don’t usually consider themselves sports fans but get wrapped into the “madness.” On Sunday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the 68-team men’s basketball tournament field. That means the next three weeks most of the country will be in the depths of March Madness as teams in the tournament make their way through the field and try to become the 2011-12 college basketball national champion in Division I.

There will be upsets. There will be buzzer beats. There will be blowouts. There will be crying. There will be smiling. And through it all, there will be great basketball.

This year’s tournament has a wide-open field with at least eight teams that could legitimately win the national title on April 2 in New Orleans.

Kentucky is the overall No. 1 seed, as it went 32-2 this season, losing both games by a total of eight points. Most sports prognosticators are picking the Wildcats to win their eighth national championship in school history, but other teams will have a lot to say about that.

It seems that another 30-plus win team, the Syracuse Orange, is being overlooked. This team, however, went 31-2 and won the Big East regular-season title. It wouldn’t be shocking to see Kentucky and Syracuse square off for the national title.

It also wouldn’t be a surprise to see Michigan State or North Carolina ”“ both No. 1 seeds ”“ win the six games necessary to become the champion.

Michigan State is aggressive and plays hard defense. North Carolina has a roster filled with future NBA players. The Tar Heels’ roster might not be as good as Kentucky’s, which boasts three to four potential NBA first-round picks, but North Carolina is good. It only lost to Kentucky 72-71 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. in December.

Missouri, playing its final year in the Big XII before heading to the Southeastern Conference next year, has some of the quickest and best guards in the country. Although the Tigers got a No. 2 seed, they are a dangerous team.

Coach Bill Self at Kansas also has a team that could steal that national title. The Jayhawks have Thomas Robinson, who should beat out Kentucky’s Anthony Davis for the national player of the year. And don’t forget about Ohio State. The Buckeyes received No. 2 seed, but it would’ve snagged the last No. 1 seed if it had beaten Michigan State in the Big 10 title game on Sunday.

While those teams above all have the highest statistical chances to win the national title, the tournament is always filled with Cinderella stories.

Butler, whom most fans had never heard of and whose home state they probably don’t know, reached the national title game the past two seasons. The Bulldogs were an in-and-out 3-pointer away from beating Duke in 2010 title game.

Last year, Virginia Commonwealth University went from being one of the last teams in the tournament (meaning they had one of the lowest seeds) to reaching the Final Four, where it lost to Butler.

Both of those schools are what the college world calls mid-majors, as they don’t play in one of the traditional power conferences such as the SEC, Pac 12, Big 10, Big XII, Atlantic Coast Conference or the Big East.

It’s hard to tell right now if there will be a VCU or a Butler in this year’s tournament that will shock the world and reach the Final Four. VCU is back in the tournament this year as a 12 seed, but can it duplicate the magic it had last year? Time will tell.

Murray State could be a team that destroys a lot of fans’ brackets. The Racers finished 30-1. Yes, they did it while playing in a mid-major conference called the Ohio Valley Conference, but they did have an impressive win at Memphis (also a tournament team) and spent most of the season in the Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll. Murray State also broke the top 10 midway through the season.

The Racers have a favorable draw as they play Colorado State in the first round and would play the winner of Marquette/BYU/Iona in the second round.

If they reach the Sweet 16, then they would play either Florida, Virginia, Missouri or Norfolk State. If the Racers played Missouri, that could easily be one of the highest-scoring and most exciting games of the tournament.

So, fans around the country will be filling out their tournament brackets the next few days and will be competing against each other for the next three weeks. None of them can predict the future and their guesses of who will win the tournament are as good as anyone’s, but there is one thing that will be certain: The madness is about to begin.

Ӣ Ӣ Ӣ

Today’s editorial was written by Sports Editor Al Edwards on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, Ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.