The college basketball season is approaching tournament time! With the annual NCAA Basketball tournament to determine a National Champion coming up very soon soon, we’ve decided to bring back something that was very successful — AND FUN — for another year.

That's right, guys. I'm here to announce the 2017 State of the U College Basketball Bracket Contest!

In conjunction with our friends at Yahoo!, we will be running another bracket contest this year. This is YOUR CHANCE to prove that you are, in fact, the smartest fan out there.

How does this work? Simple, but we'll get to that in a second. But I know your main question: Are there prizes?!?!?!? OF COURSE THERE ARE!!!! In addition to the intangible bragging rights from winning a contest of this sort, the prizes for this year's SOTU Bracket Contest are:

• GRAND PRIZE: $100 gift card to All Canes
• 1st prize: Canes hat from Lids.com (style to be determined)

IMPORTANT ENTRY INFORMATION

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.  The State of the U College Basketball Brackets starts on Monday, March 13, 2017 and ends on Thursday, March 16, 2017. Open only to eligible legal residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 years or older. Click here for Official Rules and complete details, including entry instructions, odds of winning, prize details and restrictions, etc.. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.  Sponsor: Vox Media, Inc.

This is contained in the official rules (below), but here are the entry requirements:

How to Enter:

To enter the Contest, you must :

(i) be a registered member of the Contest Site,

(ii) be a registered member of the Yahoo!Sports Tourney Pick'Em (the "Tournament Site"),

(iii) be a registered member of the league entitled "StateOfTheU.com" (the "League"), and

(iv) create and submit an entry for the League on the Tournament Site.

i. Becoming a Registered User of the Contest Site. Visit the Contest Site and if you are not already a registered user of the Contest Site, click "Sign Up" and register as a member of the Contest Site.

ii. Becoming a Registered User of the Tournament Site. Visit the Tournament Site to register for a Tournament Site account.

iii. Becoming a Member of the League. Locate the League in the Tournament Site’s Group Directory and click to join.

iv. Creating and Submitting an Entry. Once signed up to participate in the League on the Tournament Site, an entrant must submit his or her "selections" in accordance with the rules of the Tournament Site to predict the outcome of all games in the 2016 Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament (an "Entry").  There is a limit of one (1) entry per person/e-mail address. Entries will not be acknowledged. The use of an agency or any automated system to enter is strictly prohibited and Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any entries received through such methods, as determined by Sponsor, in its sole discretion.

On part (i), State of the U is the contest site. So, be sure you're a REGISTERED SOTU MEMBER before you make your entry. I'd hate to disqualify anybody for not following the rules.

FULL DISCLOSURE: the runner-up in last year’s Bracket Contest was disqualified for not being a registered member of State of the U. So, please, if you want to have a chance to win prizes, and actually receive them, be sure you follow the rules.

CLICK THIS LINK to go to the page to join the bracket, or search stateoftheu.com once you've made your Yahoo! Tourney pick'em account to join the bracket.

(Limit: 1 entry per person)

So, there you have it, Canes. Enter the bracket for your chance to win one of our prizes.

Happy Bracketing, everybody!

Go Canes!