I am completely winging it, SL. I don't really care who wins but perhaps that will change as the championship progresses. Currently, I'm just curious to see who, if any, of my coworkers guessed correctly, especially since 'my' teams are out.
I think at least one of my brackets had Duke making it as far as the Final Four, so we'll see. A couple of my coworkers have Virginia winning, but I think one has Duke and another Kentucky.

Brackets are pretty popular around here as well but I've never tried my hand at doing one. I'm more of a casual fan unless a local team is in - I'll watch the games as part of a social event with friends, sort of like our Super Bowl parties.

Not really interested in basketball, but a few members of the family (including myself) were very happy that UK lost!

Baseball is back!!! We are a very happy bunch at my house today after watching the Cardinals beat the Cubs yesterday! Although last season was just long enough ago that I had to keep explaining things to the younger siblings; strikes, outs, top of the inning, etc. Everything that my brother had to explain to me when I first started watching baseball and he very kindly reminded me of that yesterday.

SnowAngel

I've had no reason to contribute to this thread beforehand, as some sports in Australia, especially some of the football codes in Sydney, are as alien to what you are talking about on this thread as Narnia might be to Calormen. Our most usual local football competition is NRL, or National Rugby League. There are nine Sydney teams, Penrith (Panthers), Parramatta (Eels), Manly (Sea-Eagles), St George (Dragons, of course), Wests (Tigers - a long story), Easts (Roosters), Souths (Rabbito's - again a long story), Cronulla (Sharks) and Canterbury-Bankstown (Bulldogs). We also have in this competition three Queenslander teams: 1.Gold Coast (Titans), 2. North Queensland (Cowboys) and 3.Brisbane (Broncos). As well, the competition includes a Canberra team (Raiders), one from Melbourne (Storm), a Newcastle team (Knights), plus a team from Auckland in New Zealand, called the Warriors.

Sometimes players switch to other codes such as the related Rugby Union, played in UK, France, Romania and other places. But it is rare, indeed, for someone like Jarryd Haynes, a player from the Parramatta Eels, to switch to your NFL, called Gridiron here. He has just been signed up to play for the Forty Niners in San Francisco, and, it seems, wears a yellow and maroon outfit with 38 on it. I expect that now we will all have to learn a bit about Gridiron-speak. Jarryd Haynes was one of the better and more popular players here.

Could someone please tell me why the San Francisco team is called Forty Niners? And what has this team got to do with an old song called O my darling Clementine? Just puzzled and curious.

I have never watched a NRL match and only recognize about 1/4 of those teams mentioned @Wagga. I mean I thought Hawthorn was the Tassy team in AFL because my dad went for them. Turns out there isn't a Tasmanian team so they tend to go for a Victorian team. So, so yeah I have no clue when it comes to sport. I have no idea why Richmond are called the Bombers.

I know my work mates were hoping for a Western Australian grand final this year. Which would be Fremantle vs. West coast, just to purely anger the eastern states (Bitterness I think). I am assuming the final would be played over here for the first time (can it be?). So if that does happen I will be avoiding the city that day.

When I went over to knew york, we ran into this guy who was extremely excited to talk about AFL with an Australian (my dad). My dad was trying to get away from him in the end.

I have no idea why Richmond are called the Bombers.

There are so many places called Richmond it is hard to know which Richmond is which sometimes. But it is Essendon's team which is called the bombers. That is quite logical when you realise that Essendon was once Melbourne's main airport. Whilst Collingwood are the Magpies. I think there is a team called the crows but don't know which it is.

AFL is normally a Melbourne connection, with teams like Hawthorn, St Kilda (definitely the Saints), Essendon, Collingwood, Richmond or Geelong. It has become more Australia wide, with the Freemantle Dockers and West Coast Eagles representing Perth. The second team said about themselves, that being the first Interstate team to be accepted into the VFL, they made history by turning VFL into AFL. I don't follow "aerial ping pong", though I like the outfits the players wear. So I'd be delighted if that competition went to Perth.

There is a Sydney team in the AFL, the Swans, about 5th on the competition ladder. Brisbane also has an AFL team, the Lions, I think, long before Sydney. And I think there is an Adelaide team but don't know which one it is. Hawthorn are the Magpies.

IlF, I think you will find the so-called East Coast prejudice is because of Sydney/Melbourne rivalry, with Melbourne being the main centre for Australian Rules and Sydney's NRL competition extended to include first Queensland, then ACT, Melbourne and even Auckland.

Could someone please tell me why the San Francisco team is called Forty Niners? And what has this team got to do with an old song called O my darling Clementine? Just puzzled and curious.

I suspect it comes from the California Gold Rush in 1849, and Wikipedia confirms it:

The name "49ers" comes from the prospectors who arrived in Northern California in the 1849 Gold Rush.

As for the song, it's an old folk song in America; I don't know what connection it has to the team specifically. Sometimes teams adopt songs that aren't directly related to their name or history; I can think of a couple major sports teams that have non-related songs as "their" theme.

Clementine was a song about a 'forty-niner.

Near a cavern, in a canyon,
Excavating for a mine,
Lived a miner, forty-niner....

@Wagga i think it is the Adelaide crows. My brother goes for the swans(wouldn't have a clue why, but he always has).

This has got to be me when it comes to sport in general (My favourite IT crowd clip). I can undertsnad why people enjoy it but it isn't for me. Especially cricket, that is just some people standing in a field, likely dying in those uniforms in the heat.

@IlF: Sydney Swans started by taking over a South Melbourne club, their colours being red and white. Perhaps your brother felt that Swans ought to mean the Western Australian black swan?

Years ago, my cousin and I went on a wonderful excursion to Koala Park. On the way home she saw what she thought was a cemetery. But when I followed her gaze, it was a cricket game at a suburban oval. She never lived it down. Neither did cricket in my opinion.

I suspect it comes from the California Gold Rush in 1849, and Wikipedia confirms it:

Yes I suspected it might be something like that, though forty niner just happens to rhyme with miner, which could be any valuable mineral product. But thank you and aileth for the answers. I thought the California gold rush started significantly earlier though than the first confirmed Australian discovery of gold at Bathurst in 1851 or even earlier. It seems to have been gold for Jarryd Haynes though.

@wagga he started following them back when he was young in Tassy. We had not even shifted to queensland yet. Maybe at the time they played better than dad's team (the hawks).

Haha a mixture of truth and nearsightedness?

This has be the best time of year for sports, postseason baseball is less than a month away and college football is back, oh and there's the NASCAR Sprint Cup final race before the chase tonight. Yep, best time of the year.

The Cardinals have hit a rough stretch having lost 8 of 11 games this month, still hanging on to the best record in the MLB and the NL Central. If they can just start scoring some runs again, they will be fine.

Hopefully I will get to watch the Mizzou game online in few hours, didn't get to watch them last week. I love watching the Mizzou Tigers. Should be an interesting year for the Tigers having two really good QBs; Maty Mauk and Drew Lock.

And lastly, my two favorite NASCAR drivers should both make the chase this year. Carl Edwards has won twice this year and I didn't get to watch either race, including last week. So I plan to watch tonight's race, well at least part of it depending on the Mizzou game.

SnowAngel

@ IlF: The West Coast Eagles are doing you proud. Next week the AFL Grand final will be featuring a Perth side against the Hawks of Hawthorn. Not quite West Coast Vs Dockers, but not too bad.

Back in the NRL, it will be Queensland Derby, and maybe IlF will be thrilled that she can choose between Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys in next week's grand final.

Well, the shot is up but no, it isn't good. Not for Rugby League, Down Sydney way, at any rate. The Rabbitos ended in a stew, the Sharks are now too gummy to be a threat in the Grand Final, the Knights have been caned with a wooden spoon, and Wests have to remember that Balmain tigers don't cry. The Minor Premiers can't crow any more, having been turned into feather dusters. The Canberra Raiders got raided, whilst Melbourne Storm simply ran out of puff.

Meanwhile the Rugby Union World cup is being played at Twickenham in England. The Wallabies have won against Fiji, but Japan actually defeated the mighty Springboks. I thought they would be real competition against the All Blacks. Does USA have an entry in this competition? I didn't look.

@wagga he started following them back when he was young in Tassy. We had not even shifted to queensland yet. Maybe at the time they played better than dad's team (the hawks).

Well as we all know by now, it was the Hawks (Hawthorne) who won again. And over in Sydney, at Homebush, where for some reason the two Queenslander teams competed for the NRL trophy, the Cowboys did manage to beat the Broncos. By a lousy single golden point right at the very end. We should be nice to horses.

And so it is only the World Rugby Cup at Twickenham which is left to entertain for now. This weekend should be quite good with Australia against Wales in Pool A, with Scotland, Argentina, Ireland and New Zealand among the other teams qualifying for the Quarter finals.

College football in my hometown is always an interesting topic. There's the Aggies vs the Longhorns (a rivalry that's not as bad as it used to be due to them now being in two separate divisions) and the University of Houston Cougars. Saw on FB last night that they are red hot. Go Cougars!

NFL... eh. I'm not really a fan. I am however loyal to the local team no matter how badly they may be doing (and they are doing pretty poorly).

Baseball... Now that's a topic that's heating up. Go 'stros! I've been a fan of the Astros since I was little. No matter how well they do in the post season, I just hope they have fun and learn a lot. It's a fairly young team compared to the last time the 'stros were in the playoffs 10 years ago.