It’s the best time of the year!
March Madness is simply the best tournament in sports. People from around the world watch the tournament without having watched a single regular season begin. It’s all due to the madness that comes with it. The Cinderella stories and the massive upsets are always super intriguing.
Before you head to the NCAAB betting sites, here’s a breakdown of what March Madness is really all about.
What is March Madness
The college basketball season begins in early November and continues until the NCAA crowns a champion in early April. There are 362 Division 1 teams, all of which play all season to be among the 68 teams that make the NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA Tournament is the holy grail of the sport. Once you make the Field of 68, you have a legitimate chance to win the NCAA Tournament. It is better known as March Madness because of the wild upsets and twists throughout it.
In the tournament, 32 teams get an automatic bid into the tournament for winning their conference. After the 32 teams get in for winning their respective conferences, the other slots are filled with teams that didn’t win their conferences but had really good seasons.
When Did March Madness Begin?
The first NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament was held in 1939. There was only one year when it wasn’t played: the 2019-2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the 1939 tournament had only eight teams. Oregon beat Ohio State 46-33 that season. By 1951, the NCAA doubled the field to 16 teams and eventually expanded to a 64-team tournament in 1985.
In 2001, the Mountain West Conference joined Division 1 and was given an automatic bid like the other conferences. That pushed the number of teams to 65 and forced another game in the first round. Finally, in 2011, three more teams were added to the field, which added three more games to determine the First Four.
The NCAA now has two games on Tuesday and Wednesday before Thursday’s madness begins. There are two games between 11 seeds and two games between 16 seeds. The winners of the 11-seed games face a 6th-seeded squad, while the winners of the 16th-seeded teams face off against No. 1-seed teams.
How Are Teams Selected
Again, the NCAA has 32 conferences for Division 1 basketball. Each team that wins its conference gets an automatic bid into the tournament.
The tournament committee takes into account many different analytics and stats to find the best teams for the tournament, such Net Rating, Quad 1 wins and many other factors.
The NCAA holds a selection show on the Sunday before the tournament, which breaks down the entire 68-team bracket. Each side of the bracket has 16 teams and four regions. The number of teams in the bracket decreases by half every session until we’re down to one champion in early April.
Winning the conference doesn’t guarantee a better seed. Seeds 1-11 are typically teams from the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Pac-12, Big 12, Big East, the American and Mountain West. The mid-major conferences usually get the 12-16 seeds in the tournament. There are exceptions to this, but this is ultimately how the teams are selected.
Many times, about 4-8 teams miss out on the tournament that felt like they should’ve got in. It’s never an easy task for the committee to choose between teams to fill out the bracket.
Where to Watch March Madness?
Every game during March Madness will be featured on CBS or a partner of CBS, like TBS, TNT or TruTV. You can also stream each game on the March Madness Live app.
Which Team Has Won the Most NCAA Tournaments?
Since March Madness began in 1939, the UCLA Bruins have won 11 National Championships. 10 of those came in a 12-year span.
The UConn Huskies won the National Championship last year against 76-59 over the San Diego State Aztecs. In the previous season, the Kansas Jayhawks escaped North Carolina with a 72-69 victory.
In the year after COVID shut down the tournament, the Baylor Bears added an 86-70 win over Gonzaga for a Championship. Baylor had only lost two games that entire season as there were fewer games played that year, with college basketball jump starting again.
