What happened to all of the upsets? George Mason was only four years ago. It just seems like forever.

After the 2006 Final Four, with zero No. 1 seeds and George Mason, there was talk of a new era in college basketball where the little guy was live. Turns out it was an aberration.

In 2007, there were just three upsets (defined as a difference of four seed lines). In 2008, there were eight upsets, but all the No. 1 seeds made the Final Four, a tournament first. Last year, favored North Carolina dominated the tournament and there were just four upsets.

This year, Kansas was the overall No. 1 seed. The Jayhawks won’t have to travel that far from home on their road to the Final Four. They will start in Oklahoma City and then are slotted for the Midwest Regional in St. Louis. The other No. 1 seeds are Kentucky (East), Duke (South) and Syracuse (West).

The final few at-large spots appeared to go to UTEP, Utah State and Minnesota. Illinois, Virginia Tech, Seton Hall and Mississippi State, an OT loser to Kentucky in Sunday’s SEC title game, were among the last few teams left out.

If you are considering some upsets, you really might want to stay away from 15 and 16 seeds. The 16 seeds are 0-100. The 15s are 4-96. And if you are thinking about losing a No. 1 seed before the Sweet 16, you might want to reconsider. No. 1 is 20-0 in the first two rounds of the last five tournaments.

If you are looking to take risks in your bracket, you might want to take a look at Southern Conference champion Wofford, a first-timer in the NCAA, winners of 13 straight, conquerors of Georgia and South Carolina and a three-point loser at Pittsburgh. Also, Southland winner Sam Houston State still has the amazing Corey Allmond, who dropped 11 treys on Kentucky at Rupp back on Nov. 19.

If you are looking for a player to get behind, try Montana’s Anthony Johnson. His team trailed favored Weber State by 22 in the Big Sky title game. Johnson scored 42 points, including Montana’s last 21 as the Grizzlies had the biggest comeback of Championship Week.

If you want to know how much a key injury can change things, look at Purdue. Two weeks ago, it was looking at a No. 1 seed. Then, Robbie Hummel tore his ACL. Since then, Purdue played two NCAA teams, Michigan State and Minnesota. The Boilermakers lost to the Spartans, 53-44. They lost to Minnesota on Saturday in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament, 69-42.

With the Pac-10 being way down, the SEC and the Big Ten being less than dominating, the BCS leagues got just 26 of the 34 at-large bids.

Regular-season conference champions lost in 13 of the 30 conference tournaments. Losing early in the Big East appeared to have hurt Syracuse (the fourth No. 1 seed) a little bit. Losing the West Coast title game really appears to have hurt Gonzaga (a No. 8 seed having to travel to Buffalo). Winning the regular season and tournament did not appear to help schools such as Temple and Butler, each a No. 5 seed.

After all the bracket talk over the next few days, it will be time for 16 games on Thursday and 16 more on Friday, time again for the single-elimination tournament where 64 teams lose their last game and one team wins six and a national championship.