From Consumer Affairs:

The ticket applications for the early rounds for next year's men's basketball tournaments are due March 1 and require the consumer to pay about $200 plus a $9 service charge for each ticket. Consumers can apply for as many as eight tickets.

For the next three months the NCAA will sit on all that money before finally drawing applications in June. If a consumer's application is drawn, he or she will receive the tickets they paid for back in March. If not, they will receive a refund for the tickets while the NCAA keeps the service charge - as much as $72 total - and presumably all the interest earned in the meantime.

NCAA Ticket Lottery Ties Up Fans' Money for Months [Consumer Affairs]

Stop us if you have heard this one before: Comcast and the BTN still don't have a deal. Nothing has changed since the football season, when many fans were upset at not being able to see the Wisconsin-Ohio State game, which aired on the BTN.

In early January, BTN President Mark Silverman said he was "optimistic" an agreement would be reached with Comcast. Now another month has passed, and nary a grand signing ceremony has been seen.

Silverman acknowledged Thursday that talks continue, but he didn't want to add anything more. That's probably a smart decision because it probably isn't a good idea to get everyone's hopes up again.

The BTN also doesn't have an agreement with Charter Communications, the main cable carrier in Madison. In an effort to accommodate Badgers fans, it appears Wisconsin will open the Kohl Center free of charge and air the game on the big scoreboard TV screens.

Big Ten Network, Comcast continue battle [Chicago Tribune]

However, we never tried out their basketball hoops. Curtis did, it broke and he had a devil of a time getting it fixed.

By devil we mean a powerful, supernatural force that can be harnessed for good. Curtis writes:

Dear Consumerist,

In early April the Plexiglas on the backboard of our Huffy basketball hoop broke much to the dismay of my two sons. I knew I didn't have my receipt, proof of purchase, warranty card...whatever...but I decided to charge head first and unarmed into a customer service battle.

More, after the jump...

Curtis continues:

"I found out via their website that the backboard has a three year warranty, ours is only about 1.5 years old. After a bit more digging I found that to submit a claim I had to email photos of the damage to their CS. Clever, suck me in with a seemingly easy task and then crush me under the weight of warranty claim requirements. But I sent the photos and after 3 days of silence I had almost given up when I received my reply.

"Sorry to hear about the damage to your backboard. We will be happy to replace it. Please send us your shipping address and a phone number in case the shipping company needs to contact you."

Wha? Where's the fierce resistance?...the snippy retorts? Where's the hook? Waaait a minute, its probably just a piece a blank Plexiglas sent with some arcane assembly instructions and it'll take 6 months to get here...right? I emailed my contact info along with a few follow up questions. I got a reply the same day:

"Thank you for your shipping information and contact info.

Unfortunately [ah THERE it is...I thought], we do not make your exact model backboard any longer but the replacement is the same size and will not require any modification and will be completely assembled and ready to install.

Your replacement is slightly backordered [AHA!!!] but we expect it to ship on or about May 15th and will take 7-10 days to arrive."

At this point I was completely deflated. I had charged in ready to wage battle only to find a nice lady with flowers in her hand...for me. The only thorn in all of this was that the replacement would take 1.5 months to get to me. But who am I to complain...its free.

And to cap things off? The backboard arrived on May 10, far in advance of their estimate. It worked perfect and my kids and I appreciate it.

Well done Huffy!"

We like how in both the "proletarian" and "extra-crispy" flavored lines, there's a guy with his hands on his hips, standing to the side, looking slightly pissed. Presumably, that represents you, sucker.

Please, let the madness stop. Or is it start? We're not sure anymore. Of anything. It's all lies. Or marketing. There's a difference?