MAC daddies

Ah. There you are, you little rascal.

All day long we waited for the cataclysmic upset, the oh-my-God moment, that seismic ritual of the first day of the NCAA Tournament: The Rending of the Brackets. Finally it came, almost on the stroke of midnight.

Altogether now, people who didn't have the good fortune to attend a Mid-American Conference school: You do not. Ever. Sleep on the MAC.

Unfortunately for the Arizona Wildcats and their coach, Sean "That Ain't My Voice On The Wiretap" Miller, that was a MAC school, Buffalo, playing opposite them. And the MAC school ate them without even chewing its food. In a 4-vs.-13 matchup, the 13 seed didn't just win, it staged a lamination, wiping out the Pac-12 pretenders by 21.

This likely done ruint a lot of brackets, considering how many of the Rumored To Be Smart People had Arizona as a particularly dangerous 4-seed. At least one of the Rumored To Be Smart People, the relentlessly annoying Skip Bayless, picked Arizona to win the whole value meal.

So lovers of chaos had that to celebrate, too.

A few other observations from the not-very-Mad first day of the Madness:

* Apparently the 13-4 matchup is the new 12-5.

Which is to say, it's the matchup where ruinous bracket events lurk, or at least they did yesterday. There was Buffalo over Arizona. There was Texas Tech (4) having to come from behind to beat Stephen F. Austin (13) by 10. There was Gonzaga (4) having to gasp to the last to beat UNC-Greensboro (13) by four.

* Apparently the Pac-12 is the new MAC.

Which is to say, it's now a mid-major. UCLA didn't even get past St. Bonaventure in a play-in game. Ditto Arizona State vs. Syracuse. And, of course, Arizona, the league champion, got strip-mined by a MAC school.

This eliminated the entire Pac-12 contingent in one day. It's the first time since the creation of the Big 12 21 years ago that one of the major conferences failed to get a team to the second round of Da Tournament.

The good news is, perhaps the Summit League will extend an invitation to play a challenge series with its new fellow mid-major, the Pac-12.

The bad news: The Pac-12 would probably lose.

* All hail Davidson, South Dakota State, San Diego State, the aforementioned UNC-Greensboro.

Who put up great and noble fights as double-digit seeds before falling to higher seeds yesterday, lending at least a breath of madness to what was generally a numbingly chalk day.

* All hail Donte Ingram of Loyola.

Whose buzzer-beating 3-pointer from a long way off lifted the 11-seed Ramblers -- in the tournament for the first time in 33 years -- to a first-round win over 6-seed Miami (Fla.) in the only other real upset of the day.

Thursday's One Shining Moment moment. Every day has to have at least one, right?