March Madness For Dummies
Hey Friends! As some of y’all may know the month of march is upon us meaning that March Madness will be taking over the lives of many Americans across the country. For those of you, like me, who don’t exactly understand the craziness of March Madness I have decided to create a basic guideline to help you out.
Don’t worry guys it’s actually fairly easy.
When Does It Start?
March Madness Begins March 15th and runs until about the 2nd week of April
Who Runs It?
The NCAA ( National College Athletic Association) is in charge of nearly 1,300 colleges and universities which compete in tournaments and championships throughout the school year
What Are The Divisions?
Division 1- These schools must have at least seven sports each for men and women, or six for men and eight for women, with two team sports for each gender. Men’s and women’s basketball teams must play all but two of their games against Division I teams, and men must play a third of their contests in their designated home arena. Of the three divisions, Division I is the most prominent and receives the most publicity.
Division 2- These schools must have at least five sports each for men and women, with at least two team sports for each gender. Men and women’s basketball teams must play at least half of their games against Division I or Division II schools.
Division 3- These schools must have at least five sports each for men and women, with two team sports for each gender.
Who Competes?
A selection committee made up of athletic directors and conference commissioners from each division. The committee will meet between the Thursday and Sunday before the beginning of the tournament to select 64 teams to compete. Invitations are given out on what is called selection Sunday.
Criteria for Invitation-
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Rating Percentage Index- used to rank sports teams based upon a team’s wins and losses throughout the season.
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Ranking in national polls
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Conference record
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Road record
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Wins versus ranked opponents
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The way a team finishes the regular season
What’s a Pod?
A Pod refers to the method of grouping seeds at particular first-round and second-round sites.
Whats a Seed?
Seeds refer to the placement of a team in one of four regions. Each region consists of about 16-18 teams. Each seed is numbered 1-18 with the best team ranked as number 1.
How are the seeds matched?
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One pod includes seeds 1, 16, 8, and 9.
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A second pod includes seeds 4, 13, 5, 12.
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The third pod includes seeds 2, 15, 7, 10.
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The fourth pod includes seeds 3, 14, 6, and 11
Each week the game is played at a different site and each week a different team is eliminated until there is only one remaining.
What is the Final Four?
This is known as the semifinal round of March Madness. After this round the last 2 teams standing move on to the finals
I hope this guide helped you to learn something new about March Madness.
XOXO Michaela