The Jerome

Conference Championships start today! Now before you get out your legal pads and scouting caps on and call to yell at your cable company for not offering ESPN U, today's games are only the 7-10 8-9 matchups in "One Bid" Conferences so no one you should expect to see in the Big Dance is playing yet.

I am once again this year participating in "The Jerome" a conference tournament pool in which I and my little spot in the blogosphere pick teams to win conference each of the 30 conference tournaments and compete against College Basketball beat scribes from the New York Times, New York Post, Orlando Sentinel, CSTV.com and ESPN.com among others, whom I've met through my friend Pete Thamel.

Rules are 5 points for each champion picked. 2 points for a conference runner-up. Bonus points for picking teams outside the top 2 seeds (this is not a smart strategy due to lack of parity in the "one bid" conferences) and for picking teams who play no games on the home court (this makes the major conference tourneys worth more).

Here are my picks for the tournaments that start THIS WEEK:

America East: Vermont (over Albany)
Atlantic Sun: East Tennessee State (over Belmont)
Big Sky: Northern Arizona (over Weber State)
Big South: Winthrop (over High Point)
Colonial: Old Dominion (over Drexel)
Horizon: Butler (over Wright State)
MAAC: Siena (over Loyola, Md.)
Mid-Continent: Oral Roberts (over Valparaiso)
Missouri Valley: Missouri State (over Bradley)
Northeast: Central Connecticut State (over Sacred Heart)
Ohio Valley: Murray State (over Eastern Kentucky)
Patriot: Holy Cross (over Bucknell)
SoCon: Davidson (over Appalachian State)
Sun Belt: Western Kentucky (over South Alabama)
West Coast: Gonzaga (over Santa Clara)

I will update you on my progress throughout the next two weeks. Wish me luck!