March Madness
March Madness, NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, is the annual NCAA college basketball tournament held during March. The competition hosts between 68 different teams for a grand prize. As well as the competition between the teams, March Madness derives from the bracket challenge that fans partake in for the slim chance of predicting the perfect bracket and winning the huge money prize.
March Madness originated from Brent Musburger, a CBS reporter, who was describing the tournament in a telecast in 1982. For a team to be involved in this tournament, it must be invited either from earning a spot from previous conferences or from a selection committee. College basketball is divided into three divisions; division 1 being the best and most favored. The original bracket of the tournament is decided by the seeds of the teams from the regular season.
The final four championships took place on March 29th and 30th in Memphis, Anaheim, New York, and Indianapolis. The Sweet 16 championship occurred on March 27th and 28th ; Dayton vs Stanford, Florida vs UCLA, Arizona vs San Diego State, Baylor vs Wisconsin, Virginia vs Michigan State, Iowa State vs Connecticut, Tennessee vs Michigan, Kentucky vs Louisville. Knocking many of the Bracket Challenge contestants out of the running was the game where Dayton beat Ohio State and Mercer beat Duke.
To the fans, the betting and bracket are as important as the games themselves. Spanning over 3 weeks, the tournament begins with 64 teams and is soon cut down to 32 and then to 16- the Sweet 16. After a small break, the teams resume competing and trim the numbers down to an Elite Eight and then to the Final Four, which is the equivalent to a semi-finals round. The last is simply the National Championship due to the fact it determines the overall winner.
The fight is on for who or if someone will fill the perfect bracket out and win the $1 billion dollar grand prize which is nearly impossible with the odds of 1 to 9.2 quintillion. It is more likely to win the Powerball Jackpot than to win the March Madness Bracket Challenge according to Powerball’s official website.
While the odds stand against any contender in the Bracket challenge, this tournament of hope, competition, and luck, gives reason to the name March Madness.
