In your world, it may seem that everyone is talking about March Madness. After all, it’s a highlight of every year in sports. Strange as it may seem, many people, young and old, are still in the dark about what it’s about. Is it the madness that seizes allergy sufferers every spring? Is it a direct result of the hour lost for Daylight Savings Time? No, neither of those things. Check out March Madness 101 below, to learn the basics.
What is March Madness all About?
March Madness is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division 1 men’s college basketball tournament among U.S. teams. It starts out as a tournament involving 68 college teams, and it has seven rounds of competition to determine who ultimately wins the national championship.
What’s all the Talk About Brackets?
March Madness fans have zeroed in on the grid with brackets in which predictions are made about which teams will advance through each round and ultimately win. Usually, friends fill out their predictions for how the games will go. It’s fun to start with the original 68 but when 16 teams remain, more people tend to get involved with the bracketology. The person whose bracket correctly predicts the most winning matchups wins that tournament round.
Key March Madness Terms
As March Madness advances, the third round involves the above-mentioned “Sweet 16,” which are the teams that made it that far.
In round four, the only teams that remain are the “Elite Eight.” After that round is completed, it’s time for the “Final Four.” That’s when things really get intense. It’s totally exciting when your favorite team makes it that far. Then, ultimately, it gets down to the final winner.
What Do Seeds have to do with March Madness?
As March Madness goes, “seeds” are all the participating teams ranked in order from 1 to 68, with No. 1 being the best college team and No. 68 considered the team least likely to win it all. Because teams are assigned a seed or number, people choosing their bracket predictions already have a good idea which teams are considered to be best and so on, down to the underdogs. One of the exciting aspects of March Madness is that there’s an upset just about every year in which a low seed surprisingly beats a high seed.
Where Does the Phrase “March Madness” Come From?
“March Madness” was first used in reference to basketball in 1939. Henry V. Porter, a high school official in Illinois, said it. It was 1982, however, when it began to be used during coverage of this exciting annual tournament. Brent Musburger, a CBS broadcaster, is the one who got the tradition started. Ever since then, the term “March Madness” has been synonymous with this particular NCAA tournament.
When Does March Madness 2019 Begin and End?
March Madness 2019 begins today, Tuesday, March 19. The National Championship game between the final two teams will be played on Monday, April 8, 2019.
Will You Fill in the March Madness Brackets?
Now that you know what March Madness is all about, will you participate? If you’re especially fond of any of the participating college basketball teams, the competition could get exciting. You never know, and that’s part of the March Madness excitement.
