Watch Out for Texas, Gonzaga and Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament

With rumors and ideas of the NCAA tournament expanding to even more teams now that parity has been achieved in a lot of conferences, the NCAA Tournament begins today with an entire array of games from morning until late at night from one coast to the other.

I love this time of year as one of the last bastions of amateur sports, college basketball, puts it all on the line and teams leave their hearts on the court as they play to win just one more game and then just another game, and even one more game until the team realizes they're only playing with a handful of other teams left.

Opening round games mostly go according to seeds but the most intriguing teams to watch are the 11 through 13 seeds. Ten and nine seeds win opening round games on a constant basis, but when an 11 seed beats a six or, dare we say a 15 seed upsets a two, the first round is the most exciting time for the NCAA tournament as any given team can win. Eleven seed Old Dominion has already earned the first upset of the Tourney, a 51-50 win over six seed Notre Dame as reported by the New York Times.

No 16 seed as ever won a game in the men's tournament. Harvard's upset of Stanford on the women's side is the only time it's happened ever back in 1998 when All-American Allison Feaster's Harvard squad defeated Stanford's team depleted by two stars having torn ACLs.

Teams to Watch

Texas is the most dangerous middle-seeded team in the tournament. Their second round match up against Kentucky is going to a bruising affair that may just send the Wildcats, who barely survived the SEC Tournament, packing early. Texas was a former number one team at the beginning of season but struggled through the Big 12 schedule going 9-7. Texas is the most underrated team out there, and if they hadn't finished the season in slump after winning their first 17 games they'd have a higher seed.

Gonzaga, like Texas, is an eight seed with a great shot at winning their second round game. The Zags have Syracuse in the second round, the most vulnerable one seed in the bracket. Syracuse didn't win a single game in the Big East tournament yet they got a one seed that arguably should have gone to West Virginia or Ohio State. After being upset in their conference tourney finals, Gonzaga will be playing mad.

Tennessee is a six seed that also may be underestimated. When they play Georgetown in the second round they might just upset the three seed Georgetown Hoyas after finishing third in the SEC and being trounced by Kentucky. Tennessee knows how good it is, the Vols are just waiting to show the rest of us.

Look for any one of these three teams to be playing for a regional final in two weeks. I won't be surprised to see at least one eight seed in the Final Four this year.

ESPN, CBS, and the New York Times all contributed information for this story.