We’re back again for Year Two of the RTC Bracket Nonsense game.

In keeping with the car theme from last year’s debacle in Detroit, we’ve got some equally great prizes on tap for this year’s game.  That’s right, since the Final Four is in Indianapolis, Indiana, this year, we’re offering you a chance to win your very own Hickory High Letter Jacket, so you too can roll around in style like your Hoosier Hero, Jimmy Chitwood.  And if you’re reading this site and you aren’t Spike Lee, you undoubtedly have a soft spot in your heart for that movie somewhere beneath your gruff exterior.  Remember kids, the rims are ten feet here too, even if you can barely touch the net and 15-year old Oscar Robertson over there is doing backflips over the darn things.  Solution: win before he gets really good.

You Too Can Style Like Jimmy Chitwood

Second prize is even better, a still-hilarious Hoosier Daddy t-shirt.  See… it’s a play on words, and that’s always funny, right?  If you don’t like that, we’ll send you an RTC t-shirt instead.  And we’ll be sure to dip it in Pennzoil beforehand so you’ll get the true Indy experience.  Here’s the relevant info:

Name: RTC Bracket Nonsense
Group ID#: 66865 (there is no password)

Last year’s winner was MSUSpartans, but he never picked up his prize.  Hopefully this year our big winner will actually enjoy the fruits of his labor… hope to see you over there.

A few weeks ago when the brackets came out, RTC set up its annual Bracket Nonsense pool and roughly forty-five hearty souls took the plunge.  Despite a valiant effort by yours truly to rig the system and come out on top, Sparty put a wrench in the works with its upset over UConn, leaving the door open for MSU Spartans to swoop in and win the grand prize.   Here are the final standings:

Now, about that grand prize.  You may remember that we chose to give away an example of the Motor City’s historic automotive industry, and we’re holding to our promise.  As soon as we coordinate with MSU Spartans, his vintage 1970 Chevy Impala will be on the way.

As for second prize, our friend and Big East correspondent Ballin is a Habit takes that prize, and we’re already kinda worried.  He’ll have an opportunity to craft a post of his own making here at RTC.  Any topic goes.  He probably could have won the car had he remembered to fill in a champion, but he’ll have to settle for the post instead.   

So that’s it.  Thanks to everyone else for playing, and we hope to see you next year on RTC Bracket Nonsense, where maybe we’ll be giving away a, um, cow?  What do they have in Indiana?

As you might have heard, it’s Selection Sunday around these parts.  That means all kinds of Bracket ridiculousness is about to begin.  We’re shameless lemmings like all the rest, so naturally we’re going to join in on the fun n’ games by offering up our version of Bracket Nonsense where you can watch your F4 sleeper go down in flames  in round two while your little sister’s best friend who makes picks based on “hot-sounding” player names nails seven of the elite eight.

Of course, RTC’s readers are the best and the brightest of the hoops cognoscenti, so we don’t expect that to happen to anyone over here.  Here’s the information:

Name: RTC Bracket Nonsense
Group ID#: 90571 (there is no password)

Nevertheless, we want everyone to play our Bracket Nonsense game because of the tremendous thought and effort that went into this year’s prizes.  Given that the ultimate college basketball prize is Detroit this year, we searched… no… scoured Ebay and Craigslist to locate a $1 Motor City foreclosure property that we could offer to the winner as the ultimate grand prize Final Four vacation destination, to be enjoyed for years after the F4 (and all other forms of life) leaves town!!

Alas, demand outstrips supply at that bargain price and the economy is tough on everyone, so the best we could find were $1,000 homes, which is a little too rich for RTC’s bottom line at this point.  Our next thought was to offer a burned-out car as the grand prize (after all, the logo itself is a flaming tire), but we were reminded by some of our Eastern friends that such a symbol of urban decay is really more endemic to Philly than D-town.  After some hard thinking, we realized that was correct.

So what’s left?  Well, fair readers, given that the Final Four will be played in the Motor City, we thought maybe our readers would be in a patriotic mood to assist the  purveyors of American transport known as the Big Three by driving away in one of their fine models from yesteryear.  Because nothing says American know-how like a 1970 Chevy Impala, right?  That’s right, you’ll get this junker, totally free and clear, as the grand prize.  For second prize, we’ll allow you to make a post telling us everything we do wrong on this site (actually might be the better prize, come to think of it).

Play now, play often, play RTC Bracket Nonsense.  Best of luck.