Let the madness begin.

The NCAA basketball tournament begins in the state today when Colorado State University faces the University of Missouri tonight at 7:20 p.m. in Lexington, Kentucky. The game will be televised on TBS.

Though CSU is the No. 8 seed in the Midwest Region and Missouri is the No. 9, the Rams are underdogs in the game. CSU was 25-8 this season and was 11-5 in Mountain West Conference play. Missouri was an early favorite to win the Southeastern Conference title this year but lost a slew of close road games and enters the tournament at 23-10. The game’s winner will likely play the University of Louisville—widely considered to be the nation’s best team.

Tomorrow, the University of Colorado squares off against the University of Illinois at 2:40 p.m. in Austin, Texas. The game will be on TNT. CU is the No. 10 seed in the East Region and Illinois is the No. 7. The tournament appearance marks the first back-to-back selection for the Buffaloes in 50 years.

While there’s excitement over basketball throughout Colorado, don’t get too crazy about either of the state’s teams going deep in the tournament. Stat guru Nate Silver—he of Barack Obama-over-Mitt Romney fame—says CU and CSU have less than a .1 percent chance of winning the national title. Neither team is favored in their first matchups this week.

—Image courtesy of Shutterstock