As the new year begins, college basketball starts to heat up, and March Madness gets closer and closer. March Madness is this big tournament that occurs in March where 68 different division I college basketball teams, spanning from different levels and conferences, all get to compete against each other in one bracket.
Getting into the tournament, however, is no easy task, especially for mid-major college basketball teams. To get an automatic bid into the tournament, a team has to win their conference tournament which takes place right before March Madness starts. There are 32 different conferences in division 1, which means 32 different teams will get an automatic bid.
As for the rest of the 36 teams, a committee consisting of 12 members votes on who else makes it into the tournament. The committee decides on who gets in the tournament by judging off of things like strength of schedule, NET ranking, record, etc.
Once the committee has decided on the rest of the teams that get in, they make a bracket by seeding different teams from the one seed to the 16 seed. There are four different regions of the tournament which makes it so there are four teams that all have the same seed.
The one seeds, which are the best teams in the tournament, play the 16 seeds, the worst teams in the tournament that got in because they won their conference tournament. The two seed plays the 15 seed, the three seed plays the 14 seed, and the pattern keeps on going. It eventually comes down to two teams, and the winner gets crowned as the National Champion.
Every year, tens of millions of brackets get made across different platforms like CBS, ESPN, FOX Sports, and more. Even though all these brackets are made, there has never been a perfect bracket. There are 9.2 quintillion different combinations you can make with the March Madness bracket, a number hard to comprehend. In full form, this is what 9.2 quintillion looks like: 9,200,000,000,000,000,000. Obviously, a lot of these combinations realistically won’t ever happen. An example of this would be all four 16 seeds making it to the final four, which is something that obviously will never happen, only two 16 seeds in the history of March Madness have made it past the first round.
Going about making a bracket is different for everybody. Some people go off statistics, some people go off of their experience watching, some people go off of connections, and some people even pick teams based on their mascots.
Junior Brayden Camden, a starter on the varsity basketball team, explains his own mindset when making brackets.
“I pick the teams that have the best players and have good team chemistry,” Camden said.
Others, like teacher Graceon Whitesell, believe picking the best teams to win in March Madness comes from watching early in the season.
“I start watching the games early on in the season, in November, and I watch them all the way through and not just make my picks based off of the teams that I watch in March,” Whitesell said.
Every year, we can all admit that we think it’s going to be the year that we get a perfect bracket. Let’s be honest, it’s never going to happen, but making brackets and competing against family and friends all make it fun and worth it in the end.
