Bring On the Madness in February?

March Madness remains the most exciting, month long sporting event that we get to enjoy as sports fans on a yearly basis. It’s nearly four straight weeks of college basketball insanity. The underdogs bark up all the wrong trees, the favorites fall from grace and a Cinderella team always barrels through everyone’s bracket in a pumpkin carriage made of barbwire and lollipops.

It’s one of our favorite times of year.

This year’s NCAA Tournament could be the best in ages. Click here study the top college basketball teams to bet on in 2014. There is an incredible talent pool to begin with, but there’s also less parity at the top than there has been in years past. We can thank a staggeringly gifted freshman class for that.

The Kansas Jayhawks and Kentucky Wildcats landed the two best recruiting classes of this past summer. Kansas is led by Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, considered to be one-and-two in the upcoming NBA Draft. Kentucky has Julius Randle, a do-it-all big man, who his joined by the Harrison twins who are both versatile dynamos in their own right. Despite an ungodly amount of talent, Kansas and Kentucky aren’t even ranked amongst the best five teams in the country.

The top honor in the AP Top-25 goes to the Syracuse Orange, who are undefeated and at 24-0 SU heading in to the weekend and are 13-6-1 ATS. Jim Boeheim continues to excel at getting the most out of his talent, and the Orange will be in search of their first national championship since 2003 when the team had Carmelo Anthony. Last year, they were a plucky underdog who crashed the Final Four party. This year they’re expected to be headlining the guest list.

But Syracuse is in a precarious spot with other big name programs like Arizona, Florida, Villanova and Michigan State breathing down their throats. Even upstarts like Iowa State, Iowa, Cincinnati and San Diego State are making serious noise. And we haven’t even mentioned the defending champion Louisville Cardinals! All of the times you just read are all top-16 teams in the country. We weren’t lying when we said that this could be one of the greatest March Madness tournaments of all time.

Perhaps the most surprising part about the college basketball season has been Wichita State, which has maintained an undefeated record so far at a shocking 26-0 SU. They’re also one of the country’s best betting teams at 16-6-1 ATS. After becoming a bit of a Cinderella team on route to a Final Four appearance in 2013, the Shockers are no longer sneaking up on anyone. This is a legitimately strong team. We’ll see how they play with a target on their backs. They’re pegged as a one seed right now, but we’re still a month away from the big dance opening its proverbial doors.

A lot can happen, especially since we still have to survive Championship Week, which is an extended period in early March where the conference titles are up for grabs. By the time the smoke clears from that amazing gauntlet of college basketball, we’ll know full well what the actual bracket breakdowns for March Madness will be. Brace yourselves for impact. The Madness countdown has begun.