Sidebottom in running for Name of the Year

Collingwood's Steele Sidebottom could follow in the footsteps of Barkevious Mingo and Spaceman Africa after being entered in the Name of the Year tournament.

The 19-year-old midfielder is among 64 entrants in this year's tournament, an annual timewaster to accompany the 'March Madness' NCAA college basketball tournament.

The American organisers of the Name of the Year competition selected 64 real-life entrants after receiving hundreds of suggestions in 2010.

The competition started on an Ivy League campus in 1982 as an effort to find the best name from the world of sports, with Puerto Rican boxer Hector 'Macho' Camacho getting the inaugural gong.

Since then, the likes of Excellent Raymond (1992), Crescent Dragonwagon (1993), Nimrod Weiselfish (2000) and Vanilla Dong (2007) have taken out the title.

This is the third year an award will be based on an online vote, with Spaceman Africa (apparently an Australian musician) and Barkevious Mingo taking out the popular vote in the past two years.

At the time of writing, an online poll had Sidebottom (48%) ahead of the likes of Milwaukee student Dinero Fudge (36%), spelling bee competitor Shevelle Six (3%) and congressional staffer Pizza Ashby (13%) in his section of the tournament (the "Dragonwagon regional").

The Australian does have the support of a Facebook page, but could face fierce competition from the likes of Spontaneous Gordon, Pepi Hamburger, Nohjay Nimpson, Foxy Foxworth and Pamela Balls Organista if he progresses past the first round.

Check out the full list of contenders and go to the N.O.T.Y. blog to place your vote.