Mar. 14, 2007

U.S. employers may experience what amounts to a $1.2 billion airball – the amount a study says is the value of lost productivity between Thursday, the first tipoff in the NCAA basketball tournament, and April 2, when a champion is crowned.

Those slackers, of course, exclude you and me, who partake in such activities only on our own time – or work a bit longer if we borrow some office time to fill out our brackets. But America loves this mad season, a great lead-in to spring and a chance to root for alma maters or favored teams and players.

Come April 3 another champion and some runners-up will be announced in the free FOX Sports on MSN College Bracket Challenge. At stake: a 60-inch plasma TV to the champ, plus five Xbox systems and year-long subscriptions. Plus, bragging rights earned by both the lucky and savvy who engage in any free MSN on FOX Sports fan games, including fantasy baseball, which starts April 1.

Any chance 2006 bracket champ Ryan Isaac will add another 200-pound big screen to the sturdy walls of his Jacksonville, Fla., home?

Possibly, given the 27-year-old who works in corporate finance likely will back his beloved top-seeded Florida Gators to go all the way again. Isaac last year showed how easy playing the game can be, not to mention enriching.

Nudged by an office buddy to join the MSN game, he took all of eight minutes to get his picks submitted by the deadline – so close to the cut-off that he couldn't come up with a team nickname like 1cusefan and lethegamesbegin, which were those of John Canino of Boynton Beach, Fla., and Eddie Cooper of Overland Park, Kan., the runners-up who took home Sharp big screens of 50 and 45 inches, respectively.

He simply used his name and kept checking the Gators – a "strategy" that is totally understandable for a guy with three degrees from Florida.

"I watch as much basketball as I can," acknowledges Isaac, who vows to remain focused – on work – Friday despite wanting to follow hoops. "But it's not nearly enough for me to really make educated picks. I've always just had a knack for picking upsets, and have done pretty well in most of the pools I've entered."

In fact, Isaac said he did better last year by a few picks in bracket games played on other sites. But only the FOX Sports point system proffered a 63-inch Samsung – better to watch the 25 to 30 tourney games he watches most years, for sure.

Now is the time for you to play. Your choices must be submitted and frozen by 11:50 a.m. ET Thursday – or 30 minutes before the jump ball in the first of the 32 first-round men's games, between Maryland and Davidson. You can submit three brackets, mixed between going solo or in a group of up to 250 people. A player simply needs a free Microsoft Windows Live ID– and probably some luck.

Isaac admits he is lucky. "This whole thing was a shock to me. I was just hoping to win my office pool and hoping that the Gators could fare better than they had in the previous few NCAAs.  Obviously, things really went my way and I appreciate FOX Sports giving me this opportunity."

"I do have to say that for me, the best part of all this wasn't the win, but the fact that I was able win this and go to the Final Four (I only went to the semis) and BCS (football) title game to see my Gators win both."

And even though Isaac saw two of the year's biggest sporting events in person, you can bet that he's happy to be watching the Gators' second try for the title in front of his huge HDTV.