Among the many things going on during March, March Madness seems to be the most popular topic of conversation among even the most uncommitted sports fans.
In 1908, the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) hosted the first March Madness for boys high school basketball teams across the country. Henry V. Porter, IHSA secretary in 1939, described the importance of the tournament and coined to the term “March Madness” in one of his essays saying, “A little March Madness may complement and contribute to sanity and help keep society on an even keel.” Since then, the idea of March madness was publicized and eventually brought to a national level.
Now, March Madness is a month filled with multiple collegiate basketball tournaments that determine who is the best collegiate basketball team in the country.
From March 9 to March 13, there is a week called Championship Week. During these days, each conference has their own tournament to determine who will automatically advance to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament (NCAA). The rest of the teams’ fates are decided based on season records and performance in the conference tournament. Because the smaller schools are not as recognized during regular season through the conference tournament, they are able to prove themselves worthy of qualification for the NCAA tournament by winning their conference.
For example, in 2015 Georgia State won their tournament in the Sun Belt Conference and advanced to the NCAA tournament. If they did not win the tournament, their chances of advancing were little to none since they are a smaller school. The NCAA tournament will begin on March _ this year and the championship game will take place in Houston, Texas, on April 4.
When creating a March Madness bracket, it is important to keep in mind there are 64 teams in the NCAA tournament. The teams are divided up into 16 teams per region, the Midwest, South, East and West.
For advocate collegiate basketball fans, this is the best time to make money off the hours they spend a year watching basketball games and keeping up with teams. However, making a bracket does not require any former knowledge of the teams involved considering the unpredictable environment that comes with March Madness every year. According to USA Today, the chances of picking a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion.
As a result, Warren Buffett, the most successful investor in the world and the chairman CEO of the largest shareholder of Berkshire, created a national contest in 2014 that rewards a billion dollars to the person with a perfect bracket. However, he did away with the bracket challenge in 2015. Fortunately, this is just one of the many challenges across America. Many people and institutions have bracket challenges within their entities, which gives Americans many opportunities to gain money due to luck. The number of people creating brackets and the number of brackets created are only increasing.
According to the American Gaming Association, last year over 40 million brackets were predicted to be created with an average wager of $29 per bet.
This year is unique because there is no team singled out to win it all. This could be a very frustrating or relieving fact when forming a bracket. Last year, the Kentucky Wildcats were predicted to take home the trophy. However, they were knocked out in the semi-final game against the Wisconsin Badgers, which resulted in championship victory for the Duke Blue Devils and busting millions of brackets in the process. Let the 2016 March Madness begin and ‘may the odds be ever in your favor.’
