Going Mad in March!

Being a sports fan, one of my favorite times of the year is March Madness. Some things that I am always asked is what is March Madness and how do I fill out the best bracket possible? To start with let’s explore the structure and history of this famous tournament. 

 The first NCAA Basketball tournament was in 1939 and was created by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. UCLA has won the tournament champion 11 times, the most in history.  In 2001, the tournament was expanded from 64 to 65 teams with the addition of a place in game. In 2011, the field was again expanded this time to 68 teams and three additional play in games were added. The expansions over the last decade or so have only increased the madness. For example, last year Florida Gulf Coast University, a 15 seed, made it all the way to the round of 16 and busted everyone’s bracket. The excitement generated by FGCU’s run to the Sweet Sixteen was riveting. Everyone was glued to their televisions to see how far FGCU would go. 

The tournament contains 68 teams in a single elimination tournament. The 32 division 1 conference champions receive an automatic bid to the tournament. 31 of the 32 conferences host a post-season conference tournament to determine the conference championship. The Ivy League is the only conference that does not host a tournament. Rather, it selects tournament bid goes to the regular season conference champion. An NCAA Selection Committee made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners selects the remaining 36 teams on an at-large basis. Some times the teams selected on an at-large basis have the most success. For example, in 2006, George Mason University was selected as an at-large team. That year, they made it all the way to the Final Four. It was thrilling to watch a small school like George Mason make it so far in the tournament. 

The 68 teams are sorted into four regions within a single elimination bracket and each team is seeded from 1 through 16 within its region. This year the regions are: South, Midwest, West, and East. The tournament begins with four games on the first two days of the tournament. Known as the First Four, eight teams compete for four lower seeded spots within the tournament. These four games are played in Dayton, OH. Once the four games have been played, and four teams victorious, the tournament officially begins. Each round of the tournament reduces the number of teams by half, from 64 to 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 to 1. Each round is played out over the course of a weekend from three consecutive weeks. Each round also has its own unique name. For example, the round of 16 is known as the Sweet Sixteen, the round of is the Elite Eight, and the round of four as the Final Four. Pre-seeding within the regions adds to the excitement of the tournament because, as the tournament progresses, you can have matchups like happened in 2011 when a 3 seed, University of Connecticut battled 8 seeded Butler University for the National Championship. Even the matchup was between lower seeds, the game was still exciting because both teams had an equal change to win the game.

Every year, millions of people fill out a tournament bracket and attempt to pick the overall winner. Everyone has their own unique method for picking the winner of each of the games. Some people pick based on logic. Others pick based on mascot or uniform or the location of the school. As a sports fan, and someone who follows NCAA Basketball, I fill out my bracket based on what I know about the teams and when I can’t pick one over the other, I either flip a coin or go with my gut. In all of my years of filling out March Madness Brackets, here are a few things I have learned:

This years tournament bracket looks like this: 

 -Kevin Petroccione, Resident Assistant