With the college basketball season well underway, many sports fanatics are eagerly anticipating the best time
of the year for college basketball: March Madness. First introduced in 1939, this NCAA Division One Men’s Basketball Tournament features 68 college basketball teams in a single-elimination style tournament. This month of chaos holds 67 games over the span of 21 days
14
and serves as a showcase of talent to NBA scouts. In the tournaments, spectators support teams composed of a large spectrum of talent ranging from inexperienced yet talented freshmen to veteran upperclassmen who have earned their respect by previously competing in events of this caliber. To compete in this prestigious contest, top college basketball teams are given two ways
under certain circumstances. A special selection committee chooses several losing teams that are considered worthy or talented enough to earn an invitation to the tournament. All regular season games are thoroughly considered when the committee makes these crucial decisions. Furthermore, this same committee is responsible for seeding and bracketing the selected teams in the
in which they can enter. The first method of entry into the grand competition for a team involves winning the postseason tournament in their respective conference. The 32 different Division I basketball conferences across the country can each award one ticket for the NCAA March Madness Tournament to the team that wins their respective conference tournament. However, teams unable to win their respective conference can still enter the March Madness Tournament
infamous March Madness bracket, a visualization of all the teams in the tournament and the path each team must follow to compete in the championship game. Annually, there are tens of millions of people that attempt to accurately predict the results of each game, and this notorious bracket is regarded to be nearly impossible to predict in an entirely correct manner. In fact, the chances that one devises a perfect bracket is one in 9.2 quintillion (that’s 18 zeros). Whether one wants to participate in