Niners Nation After Dark: Congratulations To Our NCAA Tournament Bracket Winner

Welcome back to Niners Nation After Dark where we've actually got a bracket winner even with the NCAA title game still to be played. UConn's victory over Kentucky, coupled with the insanity of the other half of the bracket leaves seymouralan1 as the winner of our NCAA tournament bracket challenge. He selected UConn to win it all, which means he was one of four people to earn points on Saturday, and it was enough for him to lock up first place by at least 20 points. If UConn wins, the top three will be: 1) seymouralan1, 2) Azemika15, 3) lpg421. If UConn loses, the top three will be: 1) seymouralan1, 2) lpg421, 3) TEROSH3 and AlexSmythe.

Now that the NCAA tournament is wrapping up this evening, the NFL Draft will come into further focus. We've got baseball, basketball, and hockey, but for football fans we're coming down the home stretch of the NFL Draft season. The Draft will take start three weeks from Thursday with Carolina making their first selection, whomever that might be.

Is there any other sport with this kind of buildup to its annual player draft? MLB's draft takes place in the middle of the regular season, while the NBA and NHL Draft's both take place shortly following the end of the respective playoffs. The NFL has three months of buildup with things like the Senior Bowl, NFL Combine, and college Pro Days to whet the appetite. Is there anything else quite like this in sports? Do any international sports have anything remotely resembling this kind of build up for player acquisitions?