The battle for the best team in American begins today, not next week. Taste of Country's March Bandness is a fan-voted search for the best country band of all time. Sixteen groups from five decades of country music will square off two at a time in this bracket-style tournament. It's a battle of legends versus modern superstars, outlaws versus pop-country herores and trios versus quartets, quintets or more-tets. 

Lady Antebellum, Alabama, Rascal Flatts, the Zac Brown Band and Diamond Rio are the first names that come up during a conversation about the best bands of today and all time. But fans of groups like Eli Young Band and Reckless Kelly are primed to prove they're worthy of the honor. Vote for each matchup up to once every hour. Winners of each round will be decided after polls close every Sunday at 11:59PM ET. The grand prize winner will be named on April 8, 2013, just hours before the NCAA national championship game.

The 16 "teams" were chosen from CMA and ACM Vocal Group of the Year winners, and other influential bands from across the country. Success on mainstream radio did not automatically qualify a band for inclusion -- strength and size of an artist's fanbase was heavily considered.

March Bandness will be decided entirely by fans, however any fan found to be using technology to outpace the one vote per hour rule will be disqualified and his or her votes will be deleted. Sorry, no cheating allowed. Keep it clean and battle hard to make your favorite group the winner.

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