Win a trip to see Xavier play, read meaningless brackets, and get up to speed on the Big East

American Family Insurance wants to send you to NYC | amfam.com
The landing page feels like it was written either by someone who doesn't understand the contest or someone who was afraid that saying "Big East" might get him sued, but the contest is legit. For the price of just a little bit of personal information, you could win tickets to the Big East championship game at Madison Square Garden.

Why Villanova didn't take a knee | Brian Ewart, vuhoops.com
If there's a theme we like more than brothers here at Banners, it's walk-ons. Villanova's football team spanked Albany over the weekend, and they had a senior walk-on rip off 20 yards rushing in the last 30 seconds of the game. Albany's coach thought they should have just kneed it out instead. I'm guessing he's also in favor of telling little kids that Santa isn't real.

NCAA Tournament Bracketology | Jerry Palm, cbssports.com
There was a little bit of low-grade hoopla last week over Joe Lunardi not placing Xavier in his first bracket. Jerry Palm, a historically more accurate bracket prognosticator, made no such error, giving Xavier and 8/9 matchup with UD for the chance to play Kentucky.

BIG EAST Basketball Preview: Week 1 | Ryan Saccoman, vuhoops.com
If you're the kind of guy who like to track what the other teams in the conference are doing, here's a handy guide to keep you up to speed on who is playing where and when.

Preseason bracketology: Kentucky leads the way yet again | Chris Dobbertean, SBN
Preseason bracketology is next to worthless, but it is fun to look at. Dobbertean has Xavier as an 11-seed with a matchup against Syracuse, who would be leaving the state of New York for the first time all year to play that game. The Big East has four teams in in this projection. Make of that what you will.

He never really got where he was going, but not many people put together more entertaining mixtapes than Aquille Carr: