Alright, now we’re talking. With 14 more eliminations last night scattered among the Patriot, Big South, OVC and NEC, the Circle of March is starting to show some obvious gaps. Of our original 340 eligible teams, we’re now down to 309 remaining. The NEC was particularly exciting yesterday with two one-point games, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer at Mount St. Mary’s that resulted in the rare postseason RTC. Today the Atlantic Sun and OVC are back in action, with the Missouri Valley, the WCC and the MAAC each getting under way. Note: In order to respect the integrity of the regular season, we will not remove teams until their schedules are finished regardless of their current status (i.e., as of today, six Ivy League teams cannot win the conference’s automatic bid).

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.05.14)

• Liberty
• Presbyterian
• Campbell
• Bucknell
• Lehigh
• Fairleigh Dickinson
• Central Connecticut State
• Bryant
• St. Francis (NY)
• SIU-Edwardsville
• Lafayette
• Colgate
• Longwood
• Eastern Illinois

Day two of Championship Fortnight resulted in seven eliminations spread between the Atlantic Sun and Horizon League tournaments. It was a particularly rough night for Florida schools, with three of the state’s 14 D-I programs — Stetson, Jacksonville, and North Florida — finishing off their seasons in the A-Sun. Luckily for the Sunshine State, league favorite and America’s darling, Florida Gulf Coast, easily defeated Stetson to keep its hopes alive for another turn in the spotlight. We’re now down to 323 active schools on the Circle of March. Note: In order to respect the integrity of the regular season, we will not remove teams until their schedules are finished regardless of their current status (i.e., six Ivy League teams cannot win the conference’s automatic bid).

There’s much more to come tonight, with the Patriot League picking back up and the Big South, OVC and NEC all tipping things off.

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.04.14)

• Detroit
• Illinois-Chicago
• Youngstown State
• Stetson
• North Florida
• Lipscomb
• Jacksonville

March Madness is officially under way. With the Patriot League’s opening round tipping off last night at campus sites in Baltimore, Maryland, and Hamilton, New York, eliminations have begun. The first two teams to survive and advance in the PL were Lafayette and Colgate, meaning that Navy and Loyola (MD) are the Circle of March’s first on-court casualties of the year. A handful of other schools that were not invited to the conference tournaments got their one-day in the CoM sun and were also removed. The entire group of 11 eliminated teams is listed below the Circle. We’re down to 330 active schools. Note: In order to respect the integrity of the regular season, we will not be removing teams until their schedules are finished regardless of their current status (i.e., six Ivy League teams cannot win the conference’s automatic bid).

Thanks also to everyone who played yesterday’s Circle of March crossword puzzle game. Many of you got at least 10 of the words, and a very few of you got the entire set of 15 (several found other words or just made some up). Here were the hidden words: court, rush, march, champion, upset, bubble, madness, cinderella, dunk, lucky shot, stars, final four, bracket, pool, swish. We’ll be contacting those who were among the winning group very soon. Thanks for playing!

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.03.14)

• NJIT
• Northern Kentucky
• Kennesaw State
• LIU Brooklyn
• Sacred Heart
• Jacksonville State
• Tennessee State
• Austin Peay
• Tennessee-Martin
• Loyola (MD)
• Navy

In this, our third annual Circle of March, we’re going to spend the next five weeks until post-championship Tuesday counting down and eliminating the entirety of Division I basketball until we get to a single, solitary name. The Patriot League Tournament gets under way this evening, and a total of 12 other conference tourneys will tip off this week after that. According to the NCAA, 11 of this season’s 351 Division I schools are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament because of APR scores or because they’re still transitioning up. We have removed those names from the CoM and wish them the best of luck in future seasons — the other 340 schools are represented in the CoM’s inaugural 2014 edition. Because we want every eligible team to get at least one day of run on the Circle, though, we have chosen not to formally remove any of the other already-eliminated schools until Tuesday. Bubble teams also won’t be removed until they’re officially disregarded by the NCAA Selection Committee in two weeks. It just seems nicer this way.

Last year you might recall we added a bit of a game component to the debut CoM. This year’s version is no different, but instead of asking readers to find like groupings of school logos, we’ve added a crossword puzzle element to this one. See if you can locate at least 10 of the NCAA Tournament-related words hidden within the Circle (note: make sure to click on the image for a larger and clearer view). The first 15 people who tweet at us (@rushthecourt) or e-mail us (rushthecourt@yahoo.com) with 10 or more of the correct hidden words will receive a free RTC t-shirt. We’ll also give a t-shirt prize to every 10th person who gets that many right after that. For the first person who identifies all of the hidden words, we’ll have a grand prize. Please, everyone, feel free to SHARE AWAY!

Here is 2014 Circle of March. Welcome to March Madness.

Teams Eliminated From National Title Contention (03.03.14)

• Abilene Christian (D-I transition)
• Arkansas-Pine Bluff (APR)
• FIU (APR)
• Grambling State (APR)
• Grand Canyon (D-I transition)
• Incarnate Word (D-I transition)
• Mississippi Valley State (APR)
• Nebraska-Omaha (D-I transition)
• New Orleans (APR)
• Southern (APR)
• UMass-Lowell (D-I transition)