By Jaly Marquez
Sports fans all love March because if you have any real love for college basketball you live for March Madness. March Madness is the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. It is highly anticipated because it is a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams that each compete in seven different rounds for the national championship. To be able to make it to the Final Four is probably the second biggest achievement to actually winning the whole tournament. This is when there are just four teams left and they battle it out to see who is going to hold this year’s title.
To get to this tournament you must first earn a bid. There are two ways that a team can earn a bid to get into this NCAA tournament. The 32 Division I conferences all receive an automatic bid, which is awarded to the team that wins the postseason conference tournament. These teams are known as automatic qualifiers because they automatically get a bid into this tournament.
The second avenue for a bid into this tournament is known as an at-large bid. The selection committee comes together on Selection Sunday after all regular season and conference tournament games are played, and takes it into their own hands to decide. They have the task of choosing which 36 teams have the greatest potential in order to earn an invite to this huge tournament.
Selection Sunday is the day when the Selection Committee reveals the full NCAA tournament bracket, including all teams and all seeds. The seed number determines how well each team should place on a number scale from 1-68. Below is a blank bracket, until the full March Madness field of 68 teams is revealed on the upcoming Selection Sunday. Selection Sunday is scheduled for March 17th, 2019. March Madness is one of the biggest, most exciting and most fun events in all of sports. It’s been played annually since 1939 and you should all take the time to watch just a few games because these student-athletes have worked hard all year to be able to qualify for this tournament.
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March Madness 101
March 3, 2019
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