Dear playas, The Official March Fadness Selection Committee hereby welcomes you to the 2017 tournament. We've seeded the 64 teams in the tournament proper over in the bracket, and we welcome your picks. Email us at marchxness--at--thediagram.com or tweet @marchfadness with your bracket by 2/28.
Selection for the tournament was based on songs by artists with one and only one US Billboard Top 40 hit. We excluded songs not really in the spirit of the thing (like Faith No More's "Epic," most cover versions, and songs by musicians in some of our other tournaments (like Concrete Blonde, who went pretty deep in last year's March Sadness tournament—who also aren't really in the spirit of the thing). Songs must have achieved their highest chart position Jan 1, 1990-Dec 31, 1999.
However, these criteria excluded a number of obvious contenders, such as Sophie B Hawkins, Snow (had another "hit"), EMF, Fastball, Digital Underground, Gerardo, Stereo MCs, Edwin McCain, Tonic, Natalie Imbruglia ("Torn" only hit #41), and Billy Ray Cyrus (a crossover). The Committee deliberated long and hard about their inclusion (weighing also some other not-quites) and decided to let you, the voting public, our dear readers decide which of these should get to play in the tournament proper. Hence the play-in games, which begin on February 1st and will run for four days each in February to finalize our bracket.
Consult this space for periodic updates, final scores, analysis, as we go.
You can see by the schedule on the bracket that first round games will begin 3/1. Hit us up in the comments here or on the pages themselves with complaints, memories, thoughts, kudos, and whatever else. Let's do this.
—The Committee