March is here and that means it’s time for our annual Sneaker News March Madness tournament where we pit some of the all-time sneaker greats against each other on the road to one shoe’s eventual championship supremacy. Last year, we let the most beloved original Air Jordan colorways battle it out, with the Air Jordan XI ‘Concord’ emerging as your choice for G.O.A.T. This year, we’re taking the next logical step and will have the very best in non-OG Air Jordan colorways facing off to see which is the king of them all. While we all love the OG’s, there’s no denying that there have been some serious neck-breakers to stray from the traditional Air Jordan color schemes over the years, so on diversity alone, things should get pretty interesting once this year’s action gets underway.
With college teams fighting through their conferences this week with their NCAA tournament lives on the line, we thought we’d further amp things up for our tourney this year by adding a play-in round to let our readers determine the final additions to the bracket field. We have 24 selections already locked in place, but as you can imagine, there are a lot of worthy competitors, so you will decide from 24 additional selections which 8 will survive to claim a place in the big dance. The bubble selections are divided into four groups with the top two vote-getters in each grouping moving on to the tournament. You will get two votes per group, so make them count. As you can see from the choices below, there’s some pretty stiff competition right out of the gate, so you can only imagine what’s waiting for these contenders in the main event. Voting for the play-in round will remain open until 5pm EST on Sunday with the winners to be announced later that night. Check out the 2012 bubble kicks after the jump and voice your opinion by casting votes for your favorites.
Instructions: Select TWO Air Jordan Retros from each Group to move on to the Round of 32.
PLAY-IN ROUND – GROUP 1
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PLAY-IN ROUND – GROUP 2
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PLAY-IN ROUND – GROUP 3
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PLAY-IN ROUND – GROUP 4
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