March Madness

Now that the month of March has come around again it’s time to look at the madness coming our way. For those who don’t know what March Madness is, it’s a time of the year where college basketball teams come together and play in a tournament that lasts throughout the month of March. 68 teams compete in a seven round single elimination tournament for the national championship. There are two ways a team can get into the tournament: first, if the team is eligible  for post season play or wins their conference championship they qualify; second, a team may be invited to the tournament  by the selection committee. The committee is able to choose 36 other teams to compete in the tournament, along with the 32 teams that qualified.

The best part about March Madness is making a bracket for yourself. According to the American Gaming Association almost 70 Million brackets are filled out every year by 40 million Americans. ESPN offers up a free bracket system where you can make an account and go head to head with your friends and their brackets. They even offer up $1,000,000 to anyone who can get the bracket 100% correct. So far nobody has ever filled out a perfect bracket and the tournament has been going on since 1939. Even though the chances of winning are small it is still a very fun month to follow college basketball.