Basketball Widow

Sports Widows Guide to March Madness

March 23, 2008 11:22 AM | 0 Comments

For many Sports Widows, March is the time of year when their sports fans emerse themselves in the College Basketball Championship Tournament, otherwise known as March Madness. The NCAA Mens and Womens tournaments are single-elimination tournaments held each spring featuring 65 teams. Also referred to as the Big Dance, the tournaments take place over a three week period at four sites across the country.

March Madness 101:

How are teams selected? On Selection Sunday, the NCAA Selection Committee announces the 65 best mens college teams in the United States. The womens teams are announced on the following day. The 65 teams are made up of 31 conference champions and 34 other teams selected by athletic directors and conference commissioners. The 64th and 65th ranked teams play the day before the tournament is scheduled to start to to get down to a field of 64.

What's Bracketology? The teams are assigned into one of four regional tournaments and ranked from best to worst, one to sixteen, in the regional brackets. The best four teams in the country are all ranked number one a of the four regional brackets. The next best teams are ranked two until all 64 teams are seeded.

The tournament starts with the number 1 team team playing the number 16 seeds in each regional bracket. The number two team plays the number 15 seed, the number 3 plays the number 14, and so on.

Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4? When each bracket gets down to four teams, you have the Sweet 16. At teams per bracket, you have the Elite 8. And when each bracket has a winner, you have the Final Four. For some reason the tournament winner gets to cut down the basketball nets (this is a big deal).

Cinderella at the Big Dance? Inevitably, some lesser-ranked teams pull off upsets against the top-ranked, power-house teams during the tournaments. These underdog team who advance through the tournament are called "Cinderella Teams".

That's about all you need to know about the tournament. You should be able to carry your weight in any conversation this month. Go Tarheels!