Paperwork sports fans can actually enjoy

It's that hectic time of the year again.

As an annual rite of passage, every spring, we dutifully dig out all of our records and search the Internet for help. We look over piles of paperwork, sort through tons of statistics, study all the vital numbers and carefully pore over the forms in front of us, trying to make some sense out of everything that's taken place over the past several months.

Finally, after hours of anguish, we boldly but carefully fill out that form, sign it, maybe say a little prayer, turn it in to the proper authority and hope for the best.

Filing our income tax return? Naw, we'll worry about that next month — April Anxiety.

Right now, though, it's time for something much more important — March Madness — and a whole lot more fun. Yes, it's almost time, once again, to fill out your NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament bracket.

On Monday morning, fax machines all over America will be cranking out copies of the field of 65 for the annual office pools — which are said to cost this country millions of dollars in productivity every year as employees waste valuable company time while they try to pick all the winners in what they hope will be their own personal road to the Final Four.

Whether you're playing for lunch, M&Ms, bragging rights or somebody's hard-earned cash, the annual office pool has become a slice of Americana that ranks right up there with the World Series and Super Bowl pools on the list of fun, frivolous ways for families, friends and co-workers to come together for a common cause.

This year's NCAA men's tourney field features three teams from the Beehive State — Utah, BYU and Utah State — and would've included a fourth in-state school, Weber State, had the Wildcats not spoiled a superb season by stubbing their collective toes in the Big Sky tournament. Now the 'Cats must settle for an appearance in the NIT — Nobody's Interested Tournament — which any basketball junkie will tell you is like difference between Cool Whip and bull dip.

Now we wait and wonder where the Utes, Cougars and Aggies will land in this year's bracket.

Where will they be seeded? Where will they be sent? Who will they face in the first round? Who's my best friend with a big, flat-screen TV?

The suspense will end later today when the NCAA Selection Show — the most highly anticipated program since Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone's secret vault (but with much more gratifying results) — announces the pairings on Channel 2 beginning at 4 p.m.