The NCAA tournament is known as March Madness. The NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament. Every year, 68 college basketball teams compete in 7 rounds for the national championship. In the penultimate round, there are only four teams left, which are known as the Final Four.
The tournament begins in mid-March and happens throughout early April. The games are spread out across different cities, making this a nationwide tournament. Selection Sunday is the day when the Selection Committee reveals the full NCAA bracket, which includes all teams and all seeds. The full schedule for the 2025 season is Selection Sunday: Sunday, March 16, First Four: March 18-19, Second Round: March 22-23, Sweet 16: March 27-28, Elite Eight: March 29-30, Final Four: April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The NCAA tournament creates school spirit and pride around different communities. Fans of different teams gather to support their teams, which creates a festival-like celebration at games and viewing parties.
The first NCAA Tournament started in 1939 and was held every year until the 2019-2020 season due to COVID-19. The term March Madness was first used to refer to basketball by an Illinois high school official named Henry V. Porter in 1939.
The teams are selected from two ways to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. The 31 Division l conferences all receive an automatic bid, which they award to a team that wins the postseason conference tournament. Teams are also selected for their performance. Regardless of how a team performs during the regular season, if the team is eligible to play a postseason and wins their conference tournament, they will receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament. These teams are known as the automatic qualifiers.
I interviewed a freshman at Eleanor Roosevelt High School named Belinda Han, and she stated, “I think it’s interesting how they have a tournament that is different.”
I also interviewed another freshman at ERHS named Jeana Macayaon, and she stated, “I don’t watch basketball, but I think it’s cool.”
