I just got done filling out my brackets.. for the first round I picked all the better seeds to win except Minnesota (10), Baylor (9), Murray State (12), Ohio State (11) and Seton Hall (10).

For my biggest surprise of the tournament, give me Murray State taking on Gonzaga in the Sweet 16, and I say its a toss up. I did another bracket where Murray State makes it to the Elite 8. But it's too hard to see them passing Gonzaga and Michigan or Texas Tech.

I actually think the South is going to have zero surprises, I expect Virginia to make it to the Final Four. I do wonder if North Carolina can make it though. Have a feeling they won't, I picked Kentucky to knock them off in both my brackets.

Everyone's favorite is Duke. Sure. I'm down for that too. Give me Duke and Kentucky in the finals. Or Duke and Virginia. Those are the two I went with.

Rory looks to have this tournament locked up. Beyond that though, check out this putt on 17 by Vegas. It is officially the longest putt on that hole in tournament history:

Basically, yes. They are so popular because of just the general interest and excitement of big name college players coming into the NFL, and NFL teams gaming/playing the draft in various ways to make their team better.

So you have a lot of interest from college fans to see where their best players from last year entering the draft might land. Fun to speculate and see them move up and down the draft board, based on news, combine results, coaches interviews, player interviews, off-season injuries, tape studies, individual team workouts and meetings.. so many variables change through the few months leading up to the draft.

And same thing but the flip side for NFL fans; its interesting to see what the latest news and pundit polls points for your team's top picks. Plus mock drafts are interesting because you get to see how intelligent some analysts are. And also how little insider info most of us have, and how much many are just full of it and guessing.

There are a ton of NFL mock drafts out there and they are all changing and updating constantly. Did some googling and found some good resources worth sharing to stay up to date. This first one especially:

Mockout's NFL Mock Draft Database

This aggregate site focuses on the top 5 picks from many different experts but it includes links to each mock draft in full. Really good snapshot of where everyone is thinking of how the top of the draft is going to play out. Or if you want to download their app and create your own, they have that too.

Draftsite's NFL Mock Draft

This one is really comprehensive. Includes several mock drafts going back to 2010, so you can see how accurate any given list is. Also includes draft results going back to 1987. Includes mocks for all 7 rounds.

NFL.com's Mock Draft Central

Then there's NFL's official one. Shows mock drafts of 4 analysts. Has tabs for the live draft and news as well.

If you find any others, share here.

I'm all for it. Talked about Machado's shiny new contract in another thread and I was torn on that one. But Bryce Harper is a far more special player. 13 years is a little crazy. But I imagine there are opt-out clauses built in so they can start to figure it out around year 5-8 and maybe rework it or trade or whatever. Or best case, Harper is a stud until he is 40 and they look like geniuses. I doubt it. But there is a chance.

Only a 4 win difference? That seems low to me. I say they are instantly 10% better at least. And that would translate to 8-10 more wins or so. That's easily the difference between sub .500 and missing the playoffs and a #1-4 seed. So hell yeah, make that deal, roll the dice and just go for broke. Why not?

PowerPlay Wrote:

I think that they should donate to charity once it hits a certain threshold, in a Bill and Melinda Gates type of way. Either that or take the money (after the threshold) and invest, not just donate it into the public. Think of how cool that'd be. If the NFL took just half of their profits from one year and invested into spreading solar panels/energy for housing to help the world, food, medical treatment for those who can't afford it (hospitals would have a surplus to use at their discretion, or whatever), helping animals that need it, so on and so forth.

But this is a pipedream, of course.... none of that is remotely possible if Goodell is making 35 million, Rodgers 30 million, etc, etc..

JFoster Wrote: One of the great things about seeing MLB live is that there are so many games which makes it so affordable, even for those looking for top notch seats.