March has arrived, and the only other thing associated with March, apart from the bad weather, is basketball. Every spring, college basketball fans across America anticipate one of the most unpredictable basketball tournaments in the world, March Madness. Officially known as the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, this competition hooks millions with its high-stakes games, Cinderella games, and unforgettable buzzer-beaters.
March Madness features 68 Division I men’s basketball teams and is a single-elimination tournament where teams compete in seven rounds for the national championship. There are two ways in which a team can participate as one of the 68. The first is through an automatic bid. Division I basketball consists of 353 teams, each belonging to one of 32 conferences. Each conference holds a post-season tournament, with the winner of the post-season tournament being automatically selected to compete in March Madness regardless of their regular season performance.
The second way is through an at-large bid, where the NCAA selection committee decides in the final days of the regular season to decide which non-automatic qualifying teams are invited to participate. After the teams are selected, the committee ranks them in a process known as “seeding,” which determines the brackets based on their rankings. The top team is matched with the lowest-ranked team at the top of the bracket, the second-highest team is paired with the second-lowest-ranked team, and so on.
Before any games, March Madness begins with Selection Sunday, during which the tournament field and brackets are announced live on television, marking the start of March Madness. As of 2025, Selection Sunday will occur on March 16th. Over the next three weeks teams play to narrow the bracket. The tournament starts with the Round of 64, moves to the Round of 32, and then enters the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight, the Final Four, and finally, the National Championship game. One of the best parts of March Madness is a Cinderella team. A Cinderella team is when a low-seeded team goes on an unexpected win streak, adding to the unpredictability and excitement of March Madness. “I like how the players get extra competitive and also flashy so it’s really fun to watch,” sophomore Mahi Parikh said. A Cinderella is defined as any team that wins two or more games that were not ranked as a top team. Though the more popular option is the men’s bracket, March Madness also features women’s basketball, officially called the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament. With the University of Connecticut having won the 2024 March Madness tournament, UConn is a favorite in men’s and women’s basketball. “[My favorite college team is] UConn because one of my favorite players is Paige Bueckers,” Parikh said.
Many fans find that the unpredictability and excitement of March Madness draw them in every spring.“I just think it’s fun, more competitive, there’s so many teams and there’s a lot of underdogs; anything can happen,” sophomore Madoox Keim said.
Although most of March Madness’s impact comes from the actual games, a major aspect comes from the fans and culture surrounding it. One of the most popular aspects is predicting brackets. Millions of fans participate in bracket pools, competing to forecast the winners accurately. “I always follow Gonzaga because they’re a Washington state team and they’ve always been pretty good but I don’t always pick them to do the best in my brackets,” Keim said. The odds of picking a perfect bracket are astronomically low (1 in 9.2 quintillion), yet this doesn’t stop fans from trying year after year.