Sports 360: March Madness

By (the not so mad) Kelly Kinas ‘16

“Why are all these people caring whether these really small schools win in March? College basketball is cool but people are like caring about every single outcome. What the hell? I always hear about March Madness but I don’t really know what it means”

Does this sound like you? Have you heard the words “March” and “Madness” in the same sentence and are slightly confused on what that exactly means? Well, it’s your lucky day! I am here to help explain the craziness of the third month of the year and college basketball. 

Bracket predictions not included.

First things first: It’s a basketball tournament. It’s a college basketball tournament run by the NCAA, National Collegiate Athletic Association. From Wikipedia, “a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship of the major college basketball teams.”

You guys OBVIOUSLY already read my blog about the beginnings of basketball so I’m not going to go over that again. This is specifically about the tournament and the hype around the tournaments. The tournament was started in 1939 by a group of all the collegiate basketball coaches getting together and deciding on it. And thus, March Madness was born. 

The name: March Madness is pretty simple because:

• It takes place mostly in March (Final Four usually takes place in April)
  
• And the hype around this tournament is INSANE. I think people go literally mad making brackets and watching the games. 
  
• It used to be the “Big Dance” which sounds much more like the ending of Footloose than the ended of a basketball season so I’m happy they changed it
• Most boys kinda go crazy during this time because it’s a time to show off their slightly useless knowledge of random basketball teams. Know something specific about the Florida Gulf Coast Basketball team? This is your time to shine
• It’s been (at least partially) televised since 1969 but today it is broadcasted on CBS, TBS, TruTV, and TNT

BRACKETS:

• 68 teams enter the tournament, 1 emerges victorious
  
• 32 teams get automatic bids after winning there conference championships (there are 32 Division I conferences)
  
• 36 teams get bids based on their record and chosen by the NCAA selection team
  
• Each team is given a seed, #1 seed plays the #16 seed, #2 plays #15, and so on
• It’s usually better to have a higher seed but every year, there are upsets and some team ends up going home a lot sooner than people hope
• The major titles of the different rounds of the tournament are Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four
• Duke won last year in 2015
• UCLA has the most tournament championships with 11 (like damn)

*shoots free throw* MONEY:

March Madness rakes in the most money of any college sporting event and is only bested by the Super Bowl overall. $1.3 billion were spent on NCAA tournament advertising last year ALONE. This tournament is a money machine, especially because of the culture behind it. When you create a bracket, it’s no longer you just rooting for your college or the team you like. You are invested in EVERY SINGLE GAME that goes on during the tournament. You have to watch to see if you’ll bracket will win the pool. (NOTE: Bracket definition: you choose a winner for every game and write on a cool piece of paper. Pool: There is a ‘buy-in’ to every bracket. You put $5 in when you put in your bracket. The pool is all the people’s money that goes to the winner of the pool. Okay back to the blog) Bars are packed watching games little people care about outside the tournament and the NCAA knows that. They charge advertisers so much money  and every single thing is branded. This ladder company is the official ladders of March Madness. It’s the GEICO timeout. Every single second of these tournaments are branded and has the NCAA bringing home ALL the bacon. It’s not a reason to not watch the tournament, just understanding that every time you watch the game, the NCAA is making money off you and the players and universities aren’t.

THE SEEDING PROCESS (and the bracket):

The NCAA selection teams break up the 68 teams into 4 regions. You might be thinking “68 divided by 4 is 17 and Kelly said there were only 16 seeds”. You’re so smart but the NCAA is smarter. The first round of the tournament isn’t really in the tournament. It’s called “The First Four” and they find a way to eliminate one of the teams. For example, in one game two teams, usually the two lowest automatic bid teams, might play for a #16 seeding in the first round, while in another game two teams, usually two of the four lowest at-large teams, are trying to advance as an 11-seed. Below is a picture of a bracket:

Once the First Four games are played, the four winning teams assume their places in the bracket of 64 teams, and must play again later that week, with little rest. Typically, the two Tuesday winners are paired with their next opponent on Thursday; and, the Wednesday winners play on Friday. With the Second Round being played on Saturday and Sunday, this scheduling allows for six consecutive days of televised competition during the first week of the tournament. 

The first “real” round of the tournament is the Round of 64, 16 teams from each of the 4 regions.

2016 March Madness:

As most of you know, it is already March and not so madness has happened. That’s because the selection hasn’t happened yet! It happens Sunday, March 13th and then the First Four round starts and then the bracketed tournament starts. It all takes off after Selection Sunday, which is pretty soon!

You can’t fill out the bracket until Selection Sunday but start thinking about who is going to win, if that’s what you please. Or you can dance like this:

Hope this blog helped you figure the madness that is March Madness.

Happy betting and bracketing!

Fight on!