There comes a time in mid March when a lot of non-sports fans get confused. There’s talk of brackets, seeds, and pods. What does it all mean? It sounds like a giant gardening convention. Say that to a guy friend and prepare to be laughed out the door. We’re talking March Madness here, baby—meaning college basketball.
To put it simply, March Madness is the playoffs for the NCAA division 1 men’s college basketball teams. It’s a whole month production of different qualifying rounds until the final two teams out of the sixty-eight, battle for the NCAA tournament title.
Here is the breakdown of March Madness:
Getting to the tournament—also known as getting into the dance
Out of the 345 men’s division 1 teams only sixty-eight will get an invitation to play in the NCAA tournament. Thirty-one teams will automatically get an invite for winning their respective conferences in tournaments that are played before March Madness. A selection committee made up of different athletic directors and conference commissioners determines the remaining thirty-seven invites to the tourney. The committee weighs factors such as conference records, road wins, and how the team ends their season. The invitations are announced on television on what is called Selection Sunday. Four of the sixty-eight teams will face each other in what is called the First Four and only four will advance to tournament play making the final number sixty-four.
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Sweet 16 (not the MTV show), Elite Eight, and Final Four
March Madness is a single elimination game—one loss and your out. There are seven rounds before the National Championship. In the first two days of tournament play, the sixty-four teams are cut down to thirty-two. The next two days cut it down to sixteen teams that are always referred to as the “Sweet 16.” The teams take a four-day break to rest before resuming tournament play on that Thursday.
During the fourth round of tournament play, the Sweet 16 will meet, knock one and other out, and become the Elite Eight. The Elite Eight will face off and be reduced to the Final Four teams. They will advance to the semifinal round in hopes of advancing to the championship.
Making it to the Final Four is huge. A lot of teams will already begin pre-celebrating but they will need to win two more times to become the champions. This year the championship game will be played on April second.
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Seeds, Pods, and Other Weird March Madness Terminology
Brackets, also referred to as “bracketology”
This is what you’re probably used to hearing everyone talk about. “Who’s in your bracket?” is a common question asked by March Madness fans.
A bracket is a chart that breaks down the sixty-four teams into the Sweet 16, Elite Eight, and Final Four. ESPN, Yahoo.com, and many other sites have blank brackets that you can fill out to make your own predictions for who will advance. People will often sign in groups and challenge each other for money. President Obama even filled one out!
Seeds
We’re not talking about the things plants grow from. Seeds in March Madness refers to the teams placement in its region. The teams are divided into four geographical regions (North, East, West, South) and each region has between sixteen to eighteen teams, which indicates the team’s seed number.
The best team in each region is always the number one seed. The lower seeds tend to have the lesser records or are the final thirty-seven teams invited to the tourney. There is a history of the underdog seeds (Numbers nine through sixteen) creating upsets and knocking out higher seeds.
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Pods
- Be prepared to get confused. There are four pods that determine who faces who in each round.
- Pod one: 1st seed vs. the 16th seed and the 8th seed vs. the 9th seed.
- Pod two: 2 seed vs. number 15 seed and number 7 seed vs. number 10 seed.
- Pod three: 3rd seed vs. the 14th seed and the 6th seed vs. the 11th seed.
- Pod four: 4th seed vs. the 13th seed and the 5th seed vs. the 12th seed.
What a mouthful.
Cinderella Team
These are the boys who lost their Nike shoes only to have them found by the basketball gods! These teams are usually small schools or lower seeded teams that create an upset by knocking out a higher seed.
Finally, I wish you all luck with understanding March Madness. It will be here for a while so brush up on that terminology and take your guy friends in a bracket challenge. Who knows, you may just end up on top!
Image sources: College Basketball Point-Spreads, Midwest Sports Fans, Fox2 Now, Fantasy Leagues