It’s that time of year again: Time for college basketball to re-enter the American consciousness. Time for office productivity to freefall while internet usage skyrockets. Time for Cinderella to transcend fairy tales and dominate the sports pages. Time for the advice of blowhard Bracketologists to send you scurrying for the nearest psychologist.

March Madness is back, baby!

If you’ve been reading the pages of The Sun or visiting our internet sites, you’ve probably noticed the ads touting the Hoops Hysteria contest, where all you Dick Vitale wannabes can match wits with other college basketball crazies throughout the nation for a chance to win a 20-inch Flat Panel LCD HDTV.

Of course, what would a great local newspaper be without offering area contestants the chance to win great, local prizes as well? So we’ve also incorporated the aspects of last year’s SunBlog Madness contest and will once again give away a pair of Red Sox tickets to the local contestant who fares the best in our group. Second place gets four Lowell Spinners tickets and the third place finisher gets two Spinners tickets.

Here’s how to enter: Find the Hoops Hysteria contest ad on this page. It’s the big orange thing that engulfs the right side of your computer screen. You can also find links at www.lowellsun.com and on our sister blogs, but show us some love and go through our SportsTalk blog. We get a buck for every hit. (Just kidding…though I like the idea!)

Once you’ve found the Hoops Hysteria ad, click on it. You’ll get redirected to the registration page. Fill in all the necessary information. After submitting the registration info, you’ll find yourself on a page giving you the option to sign onto a bunch of contests. The one you want to click on is called “Hoops Hysteria all at once” and can be found in a gray box with a blue border. It’s in the center of your screen.

That will take you to the “bracket challenge” page. On the upper right hand side of that page, you’ll notice a “Group Play” tab. Click on that tab and you’ll come to a page with a list of groups. Select the “SunBlog Madness” group, enter the password "lowellsun" and, voila, you’re good to go. You’re a member of our group and eligible for the local prizes, as well as the LCD television. (Make sure you’ve joined the SunBlog Madness group. If you accidentally join another one, you can leave that group and come on over to ours. We’re much more fun than those other folks!)

From there, all you have to do is wait for Selection Sunday and begin filling in your brackets. Now, I know this might seem like the easy part after having to follow all those steps just to sign up, but entering is really quite simple. And if you have any difficulty, feel free to fire off an email to me (tpanos@lowellsun.com) and I’ll be more than happy to help you through the process. Believe me. If an oaf like me can do it, it’ll be a piece of cake for you!

(One more thing...after you sign up, send me an email with your team name and contact info (email address or phone #) so we can contact you in case you win.)

As was the case last year, we’ll post the leaderboard on the blog and in my Tuesday column so you can brag to your friends about what a knowledgeable college hoops junkie you are. Just remember, he, or she, who brags last, brags best. Not to mention, gets to see the Red Sox at Fenway Park!

OK then…you got it? Good! Let the Madness begin!