Last call for your NCAA brackets!

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament tips off in earnest on Thursday at noon, so you only have a few more hours to make your picks for our second annual Yadkin Valley Sports Bracket Mania contest.

We have already eclipsed last year’s number of entrants by quite a bit, with more than 270 in our contest as of late Wednesday evening. You have until the first game on Thursday tips off to complete or make changes to your bracket, and then your picks will be locked.

Entering the contest is FREE. Our top three pickers will win prizes — $100 to our overall winner, $50 for second place and $35 for third place.

We’ll be back throughout the contest to update you on how everyone is doing and to highlight our leaders. Best of luck to your brackets and your favorite teams! If the Tuesday night “First Four” games are any indication – both contests featured wild second-half comebacks – we’re in for quite a tournament.

Thanks again to all of our advertising sponsors who helped make this contest possible. Please peruse their ads to the right of this story and check out these fine local businesses.

Here is how the contest works:

* Read the instructions below and then Click HERE on this line to begin filling out your bracket online.

* When you click on the link, you’ll arrive at www.Hoopness.com. Look at the Menu bar on the left side of the page and click Log-in.

* At the Log-in page, click on Pool Players

* For Pool ID enter yadkinvalleysports — all one word, no spaces

* For the Password enter the word brackets2012

* Follow the prompts to create your entry! You’ll be asked to pick a winner for every tournament game, except for the four play-in games that will happen Tuesday. (We’ll give you those as freebies).

You’ll have until the first games tip on Thursday (usually around noon) to finalize your bracket. You can go back and make changes any time before then. Once the games start, your bracket will be locked.

Players will compile points based on how many games you pick correctly. Point values will increase as the tournament progress, so the later rounds will be worth more. First-round wins will be worth 1 point, second-round wins will be worth 2 points, third-round wins will be worth 3 points, fourth-round wins will be worth five points, each Final Four win will be worth 8 points, and the championship game will be worth 13 points.

In the event of a tie, your prediction for the final score of the championship game will help us break that tie.

We’ll write numerous stories on the contest here at YadkinValleySports.com as we progress to update you on our leaders, interesting tournament trends etc. We’ll post links so you can check your personal brackets at any time.

A few more notes on this year’s contest:

* Remember, it’s FREE to enter. Be sure to thank and patronize our hoops friendly advertisers who helped make this contest possible.

* EVERYONE is eligible to play. We here at Lusk Media/Yadkin Valley Sports plan to enter brackets of our own, but have no fear, Lusk Media workers and immediate family won’t be in the running for any prize money.

* Please tell your friends and family about our contest by sharing this link! The more players we have, the more fun it will be (and the greater you will feel when you win!)

* All decisions of our contest judges will be final.

* Please contact Eric Lusk at eric@yadkinvalleysports.com if you have any questions or concerns.

* Our advertising sponsors will compete in a contest of their own. They will be randomly assigned teams in the field and will win free advertising on our site if their team(s) advance to the Final Four and/or win the National Championship. They’ll also have a chance to win more free advertising in our upcoming magazines if they correctly pick the winning team.

Thanks for playing, thanks for visiting YadkinValleySports.com and best of luck to you and your brackets.

Eric Lusk
Publisher, www.YadkinValleySports.com