In just one week the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament will be upon us. It’s bracket time!

Leader Publications has the brackets up on our websites for all to play for free. There are two games. We have the traditional brackets by rounds. Each week you make your picks. We are giving away a $100 party at Wings Etc. to our winner.

The cool thing with our online brackets is that you can create your own private or public group and invite your friends to play. This is a great way to have friendly office competition. After each round the program will show where each player stands.

The other game is literally a $1 million national challenge. If you are able to pick up front exactly how the tournament is going to wind up, Upickem is giving the winner $1 million prize. Miss just one and you can win $10,000.

Look for our special area VIP group. How will you fare against sports editor Scott Novak and our local group of VIPs: Vance Stratton, Brandywine athletic director; Bob Guse, Cassopolis AD; Brett Nate, Dowagiac AD; Kevin Dean, Edwardsburg AD; Jeff Upton, Niles AD; Sen. John Proos; Bill Marx, Buchanan police chief/city manager; U.S. Rep. Fred Upton; Nicole Cartwright, Edwardsburg basketball coach; and Mark Daniel, Dowagiac superintendent?

With local favorites Michigan, Notre Dame, Michigan State and Valparaiso all in the hunt, this will be an exciting tournament.

With March Madness about to begin the Dogwood Festival can’t be that far away. Recent warm weather has me in the mood for this fantastic Dowagiac event. The lineup was announced last week.

I’m especially looking forward to Dave Mason. Boomers like me will remember him as the composer of the Traffic hit, “Dear Mr. Fantasy.” I am also looking forward to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, writer of “Wonder Boys,” which was later a box office hit starring Michael Douglas.

I’ve made a commitment to Bobbie Jo Hartline to help spread the word. I hope to meet you there at one of the events happening May 11-20.

How to play:

Go to any of our newspaper websites and click on contests then click on March Mayhem or go to the Leaderpub.com and click on “March Mayhem.”

You can also play on Facebook by going to any of our newspaper fan pages. Click on”contests” and then on “college basketball.”

It’s free to play although you need to register to create your username. You can also log in with your Facebook account.

On March 11, the brackets will be set and you can make your picks. The games begin Thursday, March 15.

To create your own group, click on groups and then click on create a group. Give your group a name and email your friends to join in the fun.