On February 27, we released our first version of this year’s Circle of March, with a little over 320 Division I teams vying for a national championship. Today — 36 days later — we’re down to a single, solitary and deserving champ. Through 20 different iterations of the CoM (you can see the progression below), we’ve come all the way back around. Congratulations to the Kentucky Wildcats, the 2011-12 National Champions.

It’s April Fool’s Day but there’s no joke between the two teams still standing in our second-to-last Circle of March. After Kentucky and Kansas each survived last night in New Orleans, we’re down to two teams in one game Monday for all the marbles. Will Kentucky reach its destiny, or will Bill Self again spoil the Calipari Coronation?

And then there were four. After 28 days of eliminations, the Circle of March is now in its 18th iteration, and there will be only two more versions until one team is left standing. Over 315 schools have been eliminated from national title contention, and the four that remain are some of the bluest of bloods in college basketball history. Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio State, and Louisville will play on the sport’s grandest stage in New Orleans next weekend in what is certain to be one of the most highly anticipated Final Fours in history. Is it Saturday evening yet?

Three weeks ago today we started March Madness with over 320 teams dreaming of a national title. We’re now down to only 16, and four of those are from the great state of Ohio! The power conferences represent well, with the Big East and Big Ten each putting four teams into the regional semifinals, and the ACC, SEC, and Big 12 adding two more each. The Atlantic 10’s Xavier and MAC’s Ohio are the two strangers at the party.

Are you exhausted, exhilarated, enchanted? You should be, as the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend is NEVER less than all of those things. It’s the biggest lock in all of sports, and that’s why we love it. Two days and the CoM has seen its contenders cut in half, but unlike Zeno’s Paradox, we’ll eventually get to one and one alone. Does anyone else find the clustering of teams kinda cute and also hilarious… yeah, that’s just us. Gotcha.

And now it gets really interesting again. With California and Lamar now summarily dismissed from the CoM, we’re down to the traditional group of 64 teams — win six games from this point and you’re the last team standing. Sixteen more schools will be eliminated by just after Midnight ET tonight.

It sure didn’t appear like it would end this way, but Mississippi Valley State and Iona were eliminated in dramatic fashion last night. From 68 to 66, with two more gone after tonight…

And just like that, we are now down to 68 teams vying for a national title. By this time next Sunday, there will be only 16. We’ll continue to update the Circle of March as the remaining teams are eliminated.

Twenty more eliminations on Friday and 10 more on Saturday means that there are now only 82 teams still alive with hopes and dreams of the 2012 National Championship. Of course, the actual number is somewhat less than that, but we’re not going to get in the business of predicting the whims of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee here — that’s for the bracketologists and others to do. Tomorrow’s four championship games won’t help solve that problem, but a certain television show that broadcasts on CBS at 6:00 PM ET certainly will. We’ll see you again when we have the 68 locked in…

It certainly wasn’t the most compelling day of basketball we’ve ever seen on a Thursday of Championship Week, but sexy or not, 38 more teams were eliminated from national title contention yesterday. This now leaves us with 111 total teams remaining, and from here on through the weekend, we’re going to tend to be over-inclusive when it comes to bubble teams. You just never know what the Selection Committee will do (see: UAB, 2011), and for that reason alone we’re going to keep most any team in the bubble discussion on our Circle of March. Still, over the next 72 hours, we’d expect to drop another 25-30 schools to get to a healthy 80 or so going into the unveiling of the brackets Sunday night.

Another huge day of games awaits us today, but no championship games until tomorrow, when 12 will be played…