March Madness begins this week -- the first matchups will take place Tuesday and Wednesday -- and for Philadelphia college basketball fans, there's definitely something to be 'mad' about.
The Big 5 of Villanova, Temple, St. Joe's, Penn and La Salle -- along with City 6 school Drexel -- were nowhere to be found in the field of 68 when the men's NCAA college basketball tournament bracket was unveiled Sunday.
It's the first time since 1977 that no local men's team has been included.
The NCAA men's tournament bracket, features heavy-hitter teams like Duke, Kansas, UCLA and Purdue, but nowhere to be found are any local stalwarts.
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At least, not in the men's bracket.
Fans of the Wildcats can take some solace in the fact that Villanova's women's basketball team will play in the NCAA women's bracket -- against Cleveland State -- on March 18. The No. 4 seeded Wildcats even get to host the first two rounds of action on campus at Finneran Pavilion.
Nova's men's team is also going to be looking for some postseason glory as they play Liberty in the NIT Tuesday night.
And, there are few other local(ish) teams that could be worth rallying behind in the main men's bracket.
New Jersey's Princeton Tigers -- a No. 15 Seed in the South Bracket -- has a tough task as they take on No. 2 Seed Arizona on Thursday, March 16
And, Penn State's men's basketball team -- the 10th seed in the Midwest bracket -- will take on No. 7 Seed Texas A&M the same night.
Then, for any local yinzers, Pittsburgh -- a No. 11 Seed in the Midwest -- will take on fellow No. 11 Seed Mississippi in the play-in game on Tuesday, March 14. The winner of that game will go on to face No. 6 Seed Iowa State.
