As March Madness takes over campus, Cosmos Pizza & Grill is taking over the Food Network.

The Food Network’s Cooking Channel recently released its own bracket, featuring the best dishes from 32 different college-town restaurants. The winner will be crowned Best College Eats.

Cosmos, Syracuse University’s representative, made it as a top-32 finalist. Each qualifying restaurant had one specialty meal submitted for the tournament. Cosmos’ selection is the toasted honey bun sundae, made with out-of-the-box toasted honey buns, vanilla ice cream and fudge.

As of 11 p.m. yesterday, Syracuse was ahead in its poll with 57.6 percent of the votes.

According to the Cooking Channel’s website, the “madness shouldn’t be reserved just for basketball and college mascots.”

Selections were based entirely on the food and without any influence from the actual NCAA March Madness teams. To qualify, restaurants simply needed to be near a college campus, a staple of students’ diets and, as the Cooking Channel puts it, “awesome.”

Fans and foodies alike can vote for their favorite first-round dishes on the website through March 21. Each poll already has thousands of votes, with varying degrees of competition between the foods. Fans can vote an unlimited number of times as the tournament progresses.

The Cooking Channel also provides the recipes for each dish featured on the website. Included are the ingredients, the time each dish takes to make and instructions. Users who have eaten the food can also review it for the blog.

Cosmos’ first opponent is the University of Pittsburgh’s Fat Heads. Its signature dish is the Southside Slopes sandwich. Packed with fried pierogies and kielbasa, the sandwich – also known as a “headwich” for its comparable size to a head – made it onto Maxim’s top 10 list of best “meat hog” sandwiches in the country.

Cosmos has the edge over Fat Heads in price. At $5.59, the honey buns fit a college student’s budget better than the $7.75 Southside Slope. The Marshall Street restaurant also serves from a larger menu including pizza, burgers, specialty salads and breakfast foods. Fat Heads, however, is praised for its beer selection.

SU and Pitt will only meet in the NCAA Tournament if both basketball teams make it to the finals. If it seems unlikely, don’t forget to take into account the inevitable upsets and blowouts.

Like the actual NCAA Tournament, the competition will be broken down into the same categories. After the first round ends, voting for the Sweet 16 runs March 22-26, the Elite Eight from March 27-30 and the Final Four from April 1-3. Championship voting will be April 4-5, and the winner will be announced April 6.

To see the entire bracket and all competing restaurants, visit the Cooking Channel’s blog at http://blog.cookingchanneltv.com/2013/03/14/march-madness-college-eats-tournament.

Published on March 20, 2013 at 2:12 am

Contact Joe: jtinfant@syr.edu | @joeinfantino