Today has been exciting watching the divisional playoffs and seeing the San Francisco 49ers advance to the NFC Championship by beating the New Orleans Saints in a thriller. Furthermore, Brady, Gronkowski  and the Patriots are up 45-10 against the Denver Broncos with Brady throwing a record 5 touchdowns in the first half of a post-season game.

As wonderful as football is going to be, it’s that time of the year when we look ahead to March Madness. I want to list some of the games that I’m greatly looking forward to watching.

Thursday, January 19 - Cal at Washington: The newly formed PAC-12 has a good game in Seattle which the Golden Bears should win to gain momentum and topple Stanford in the standings before heading to the Big Dance.  

Sunday, February 5 – Michigan at Michigan State: I guess I need to give some love to my favorite conference the Big Ten. Michigan State is on top of the Big Ten standings with a 4-1 record and Michigan is number three with a 4-2 record. I know that Michigan State travel to Ann Arbor next Tuesday, but I am looking forward to this one because it is a lot closer to the Big Ten Tournament.

Saturday, February 11 – Kentucky at Vanderbilt: I love Kentucky basketball and they had to be included here. Vanderbilt and Kentucky are on a hot streak and it should be a very exciting game to catch some Big Blue Nation action with ESPN’s College GameDay crew in town.

Saturday, March 3 - North Carolina at Duke: The big boys of the ACC go at it in the final encounter of their two annual rivalry games. The Tar Heels started out the season as the number one ranked team and impressed nationwide audiences with a victory over Michigan State in a nationally televised game on the USS Carl Vinson off the coast of San Diego. Their arch-rival Duke would want to remind them who has been more successful as of late.

Saturday, March 3 – Pittsburgh at Connecticut: I guess I also need to include the reigning national champions UCONN Huskies and the Big East in this list. So there are two great games on the first Saturday of March. What a way to get the March Madness flow going.