With the Final Four this weekend, college basketball fans have been given a gift from the basketball gods.

From Bucknell shocking Kansas all the way up to four total over-times in the four Elite Eight games, the madness has been in full effect.

“I can’t get over what’s happened so far,” Rob Judson, the NIU men’s basketball coach. “All the upsets aren’t that surprising, but who would have even imagined an upset like Bucknell?”

It took only two days -the first round -to realize that no bracket was able to avoid busting.

Teams like Alabama-Birmingham, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Vermont performed way above potential, thus abruptly ending the season of top teams like Syracuse.

It wasn’t too long ago that an 11-seed beating a six-seed seemed almost out of the question. Now it seems to be a constant. Even a three-seed now must be careful its for a match-up with a 14-seed.

“You can thank the NCAA for all the parity we’re seeing,” Judson said. “Ever since they placed scholarship restrictions on the league a while ago, the Duke’s and UNC’s can no longer get all the talent they want.”

Which makes perfect sense. A team such as Arizona, which can normally get any player from the west coast, can no longer sign every big player. So these recruits will then head to lower-level PAC 10 teams, in turn closing the gap from top to bottom of a conference.

More importantly, mid-major schools show they have SEC or ACC talent come tournament time.

“Take a guy like Ed McCants from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,” said Judson of the Northwestern transfer. “The guy could play in any conference he wants to. Yet he’s hitting five three-pointers in the first half alone against Alabama.”

This also transfers outside of the first two rounds. Heading into this weekend, the Final Four field has two No. 1 seeds, a No.4 and a No. 5.

“Anyone can win this thing,” Judson said. “All I know is that we’re going to see some good basketball the rest of the way.”

So it’s down to Illinois, North Carolina, Louisville and Michigan State. Who’s going to win?

Each team has its own story and reason to root for. Illinois has been the team to beat all year. Now with UNC, will Roy Williams finally get that elusive title?

Louisville coach Rick Pitino has taken his third school to the Final Four, a feat no other coach has matched. Can MSU beat college basketball’s three most storied schools – Kentucky, Duke and North Carolina – in consecutive games?

The only thing that’s known is a national champion will be named late Monday night. The rest is up to destiny.