As the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball regular season has come to a close, teams are headed into “March Madness,” one of the most highly anticipated tournaments in all of sports.
What is March Madness?
March Madness is an NCAA basketball playoff championship bracket, named after the unpredictable, fast paced nature of the tournament.
Throughout the basketball season, over 300 teams compete for the chance to win a national championship. The top 64 teams make the tournament, and those slots are determined by many factors including team performance, schedule strength, coaching polls and more. Technically, there will be 68 teams featured on the bracket, the additional four being in the “First Four” located on the top of the page. Those teams are fighting for the final two slots.
The tournament is single elimination, so if a team loses a game, their season ends. In just two days, 32 of the 64 teams will be eliminated. On Tuesday, the first of the “first four” games will be played, and Wednesday the second game will be played. Then on Thursday, the first round will begin with 16 games, and the remaining 16 on Friday. Just like other sports, the playoff games are organized into a bracket that shows which teams play which.
Before games start, fans fill out the blank bracket with their predicted winner for each game, all the way up to the championship. Some fill it out for fun, while others compete with friends and family to see who predicts the most games correctly, tallying points along the way.
Navigating the Bracket
The bracket breaks up the best 64 teams into four regions: East (top left), South (top right), West (bottom left) and Midwest (bottom right).
Each region has 16 teams, all ranked 1-16 (64 total teams). After the first round (two days), only 32 teams will remain.
After the second round, 16 teams will remain, four per region. Those teams are known as “The Sweet Sixteen.”
After the third round, only two teams from each region will remain. Those teams will be “The Elite Eight.”
After the fourth round, only one team from each region will remain. Those teams are the “Final Four.”
The winner of the East will play the winner of the West. The winner of the South will play the winner of the Midwest.
One team from each side of the bracket will make it to the championship, where they will play each other for the National Championship.
There are many different methods used to decide what teams to pick. Picks can go off of stats, team rankings or even which school colors and mascot you like the best.
Selection Sunday, March 16, is when the official March Madness bracket will be published with the 64 teams. You will have until the first round starts, Thursday March 20, to finalize your picks.
