Bracket Busters: Thanks Yale and Oakland. I'm not being facetious. I mean it. Thank you.

Yes, you might have busted up a couple of brackets, but you're the ones that bring the mad in March Madness.

It stinks for Auburn and Kentucky. Both were supposed to win, but that's the way things go in the NCAA Tournament. There are going to be upsets. And we love the underdog.

They loved the Lopes of Grand Valley State too. Alabama escaped and advanced to the Sweet 16 which has been their barrier over the history of the tourney.

Two SEC teams got through the opening weekend (Tennessee joining Bama). The other six did not. I wrote last week of the SEC's recent struggles of reaching the Final Four and its inability to win the title in basketball.

I don't expect Bama to win the whole shebang or Tennessee, although the Vols have a better chance.

They have been more steady this season (but so was Auburn at the end of the year). They won the regular season SEC championship (yes Auburn won the tourney title).

The road gets tougher from here. All No. 1 and No. 2 seeds are still in it. That's only happend five times in the history of the tournament. Therefore, there are more teams that are supposed to still be in it than there are Cinderellas.

We only have one Duke left. The Blue Devils did away with Dukes of James Madison. By the way, the Duquesne Dukes exited in the second round as well after a first-round upset victory.

Yale is out and Oakland too after their surpise wins over Auburn and Kentucky. After the discussion of officiating settled down, there was talk of Auburn's Pearl potentially replacing Kentucky's Calipari.

There is one big problem with that hypothetical - about $34 million. As much as Wildcats fans might be disgusted with Coach Cal of late, I'm not sure there is anybody volunteering to stroke the check to get rid of him.

It didn't take long with some of the favorites falling for the brackets to go by the wayside as well. There are three people in the ESPN contest tied for first. Each have two misses.

Out of 22 million+ pickers, nobody's perfect except for our good friend Brian Thornton. He didn't turn in his bracket however.

In our own contest, Wishbone Offense is in first. We're not sure who this is, but most expect it's Shane Yankey. He has missed 10 overall. That puts him in the top .3 percent overall or 77,047 to be exact.

Caitlin Clark of Iowa, the all-time leading scorer in college basketball, says more are interested in the women's tournament. I wouldn't be so sure about that. About 19 million more picked brackets on the men's side.

This week we've got Alabama against blueblood North Carolina for a late tip on Thursday night. The Tide is shooting for the Elite Eight. They've reached that round just once.

Nate Oats is in an unfamiliar spot. Believe it or not, this will be the first time that his Bama team will be the lower seed in a tournament game. The No. 1 seeded Tar Heels are a 3.5-point favorite.

ESPN's matchup predictor actually has Alabama with a 52.2 percent chance to win. These are the same analytics I used to pick my No. 6 bracket that is currently ranked about 7 million.

In my first bracket I picked North Carolina. That bracket is ranked about 3 million. Airtime is 7:30 p.m. on WTLS/Score 94.7/Hit 106.9.