March Madness - Facts and History about the NCAA Tournament

Facts and History about the NCAA Tournament

What is March madness?

Why games from NCAA are refers to March Madness?

When it all Started?

In today's article I will share with you the facts and history about NCAA tournament, why it is called March Madness and many more.

For the sport fans, in particular fans of basketball, there's a time of year that's extra special. It's that time when everywhere you turn, sports analyst are talking about bubble teams, brackets, and buzzer beaters. What exactly are we talking about? March Madness, of course!

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What is March Madness?

March Madness refers to that time of year (from mid-March to the beginning of April) when the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's and women's college basketball tournaments are held.

The excitement during time of the year swirls around the sports world as tournament time approaches. In the weeks leading up to the "Big Dance," as it is called, hundreds of college basketball teams from all over the United States fight to earn a spot in the tournament.


The NCAA college basketball tournament is a single-elimination tournament that features 68 teams vying to survive three weekends of games to be crowned the national champions. The field used to be 64 teams, but the NCAA has recently added four more teams that play "play in" games to earn a spot in the final field of 64.

Only 16 teams (the "Sweet Sixteen") make it past the first weekend. The second weekend narrows the field first to the "Elite Eight" and then the "Final Four. The final weekend focuses on the four semifinalists. The two semifinal victors move on to play in the national championship game.

When it Started?

March Madness was initially birthed by Coach Harold Olsen, Ohio State University coach was credited with developing the idea for the tournament in 1939 with the help of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.


The 68 teams in the tournament include 32 teams that receive automatic bids for winning their respective conferences. The remaining 36 teams are given at-large bids by the NCAA selection committee based upon their performance during the season.

The qualifying teams are divided into four regions (usually spread geographically through the eastern, western, midwestern, and southern U.S.) and placed into a bracket that lays out the path a team must take to reach the finals. Each team is seeded or ranked within its region, from 1 to 16.

Higher-seeded teams generally play lower-seeded teams in the beginning. At March madness time each year, millions of people attempting to predict the winners of all the games.

Betting sites are not left out either, they bring out odds, mouth watering odds to attract fans of the game.


There are usually enough upsets, however, that it's nearly impossible to predict a perfect bracket. In fact, your chances of correctly guessing the winner of every game is less than 1 in 9.2 quintillion.

As multiple games are played simultaneously at neutral sites all over the country.

The University of California (UCLA) is the most successful team of the tournament, holds the record for 11 titles.