College Basketball has a yearly tournament in March called March Madness where 68 teams face off in a single elimination tournament that decides the national champion for that season.
Last year in 2023, UConn took home the trophy and are favorites to win the title again this year. Other teams include Houston, Purdue, and North Carolina. However not every team can get into the tournament. You either have to do good enough in the regular season to make it, or win your conference. Then the selection committee will decide who has earned a tournament bid, and who hasn’t. The committee also decides what seed the teams will be if they have earned a tournament bid.
The bracket is split up into four regions with sixteen teams in each region. The final team remaining from each of those four regions will play in the Final Four. The two winners of the Final Four games will play in the National Championship to hopefully win the title of National Champion.
However, the tournament has quite a history of upsets and unexpected runs. Last season’s tournament had the second ever sixteen seed beating the number one seed when Fairleigh Dickinson beat Purdue. Additionally, a number eight seed, Florida Atlantic made it all the way to the Final Four.
A March Madness tournament in College Basketball has been held every year since 1939, where there were only eight teams in the tournament. However, March Madness has changed a lot since then, going from only eight teams to a massive increase of sixty-eight teams.
There are always star players in the tournament but the biggest ones stand out like Purdue’s Zach Edey, the reigning national player of the year, who happens to be averaging 24 points per game, leading Purdue to a number one seed in the tournament. Furthermore, North Carolina’s R.J. Davis averaged 21 points per game and led North Carolina to a number one seed in the tournament. Additionally, Mark Sears is an Alabama guard who averaged 21 points per game and led Alabama to a number four seed in the tournament.
This season there are new teams at the top. Most years you will see Duke, Kansas, Gonzaga, and UCLA, but this season these teams struggled. UCLA didn’t even make the tournament, Duke is only a number four seed, and Kansas is only a number four seed as well. While Gonzaga, even lower, is a number five seed.
Every year there is an underdog team in the tournament that nobody expects to go far. In last year’s tournament there were a few fifteen seed teams. Princeton won two games and made it to the Sweet Sixteen and sixteenth seed. Fairleigh Dickinson shocked the world and beat one seed Purdue and nine seed Florida Atlantic, making it all the way to the Final Four. March Madness always brings upsets, buzzer beaters, and great moments and this March Madness will likely be no different.
