DCist Reader-Staff NCAA Bracketfest 2009 Woo!

Not burgers. Not books. Frakkin' en-see-double-A basketball.

It's March Madness, friends, and that means it's final exam time in bracketology. Once again, the writers at DCist would like to invite the readers of DCist to join in for some competitive bracketeering, with the biggest prize of all -- citywide bragging rights (plus a little bonus surprise) -- at stake. Choose a methodology and dial in your selections. Take the one-seeds all the way to the end? You'd've cleaned up last year. Take more pride in picking the Cinderella story? Apparently both President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton call themselves George Mason fans, so maybe they will be among those watching for this year's glass-slipper story. Do you pick your seven-seeded alma mater all the way through the Final Four and championship, good sense be damned? Or do you decide by that time-tested method, mascot natural selection? (Who wins in the first round, in the wild: giant tortoises or golden bears?)

This year, Georgetown is a surprise absentee, while American checks in for its second year in a row (and second tournament appearance ever). During the first round, Maryland fans will root for Cal State Northridge like they never have before: otherwise, they face a two-seeded Memphis in the second round, and that's assuming the Terps slip past Cal. But basketball and brackets being entirely different sports, you may find yourself rooting for Maryland with your heart and rooting for another team with your, um, brackets gland.

So, signup is easy: Create a CBS Sportsline profile and log in. Click here to access the DCist pool. The pool password is dcist. You're automatically signed up for this year's tournament if you played last year, so just follow the link in the email you were sent to get to your brackets. Know that there's a bonus for upsets in the first round, but otherwise scoring is fairly standard. Good luck, happy hunting, hook 'em woo!