For many of us, our March becomes consumed by one of the greatest sporting events college sports has to offer, MARCH MADNESS.
March madness is the non-stop basketball tournament for men’s college basketball. 64 teams come together for seven rounds of basketball to claim the National Championship title.
This tournament started back in 1939 with just eight teams. Having Oregon beat Ohio state 46-33, then in 1951 doubled to 16 teams, finalizing with 64 teams in 1985.
How the Teams are Selected.
All 32 Division 1 Conferences get a bid or slot. This bid is awarded to the team that wins the postseason conference tournament, regardless of how the teams played in the season. If they are eligible to play in postseason and win they get the bid, these qualifiers are called Automatic Qualifiers.
At Large Bid is when the selection committee comes together on Selection Sunday after regular season and conference are done. The committee then chooses 36 non automatic qualifiers that have the pedigree to earn an invitation into the tournament.
How they Decide:
There is no particular formula on how the selection committee chooses the teams they mostly look at stats and rankings among the teams.
How the Selection Committee is constructed:
Each school and conference administrators are nominated by their conference, there is 10 of them and they serve five year terms.
The term “March Madness” originally came from a high school official in Illinois then in 1982 a broadcaster used this term during the tournament and it has stuck ever sense.
Dates in this years Tournament:
Selection Sunday- March 11
Midwest Regional- March 23 & 25
West Regional- March 22 & 24
South Regional- March 22 & 24
East Regional- 23 & 25
Finals- March 31 & April 2