The Gryphon Gazette

By Niam N. ‘26

Every March, the NCAA organizes the DⅠ National Basketball Championship, a massive, nationally-popular tournament known as March Madness. This tournament features the best men’s and women’s DⅠ college teams battling it out for the national championship.

 March Madness Tournament Basics:

• Teams: A total of 68 teams participate in each bracket (men’s and women’s) after the “First Four” play-in round (men only).
• Selection Sunday: This is where the drama begins! On the Sunday before the tournament, teams are chosen and seeded (ranked) based on performance throughout the regular season. Brackets are also revealed, showing the path each team will take in order to win it all. 
• Brackets: These show the matchups throughout the tournament, with winners advancing and losers eliminated. Here is the Men’s bracket from 2024:

• Seeding: Stronger teams get higher seeds (1 being the best, 16 being the worst). This helps spread these teams out in the brackets in an attempt to avoid early upsets (when an underdog wins). However, those early upsets make the tournament so exciting; anything can happen.

Tournament Stages:

1. First Four (Men Only): The eight lowest-seeded men’s teams fight for the final four spots in the main bracket. 
2. First & Second Rounds: All 64 teams (4 are eliminated in the First Four round) play head-to-head in the first round. Winners advance to the second round, and the losers are eliminated. The remaining 32 teams then play head-to-head in their respective bracket divisions in the second round. Once again, winners advance to the Sweet 16, and the losers are sent home.
3. Sweet 16 & Elite Eight: The remaining 16 teams, 4 from each region (East, West, South, Midwest) go head-to-head. Winners from each region’s semi-finals (Sweet 16) advance to the regional finals (Elite Eight). Only eight teams remain! The winners of the regional finals (Elite Eight) move on to the Final Four.
4. Final Four: The four regional champions face off in the national semi-finals. The hype intensifies as these are the “last men and women standing.” Famously, ____ the saying, “The Road Ends Here.” 
5. National Championship: The winners of these games play against each other in the National Championship game, typically occurring on the first Monday in April, where only one team will be crowned that year’s National Champion and come out victorious.

So there you have it! March Madness is a thrilling tournament where underdogs can rise, buzzer-beaters can steal victories, and college basketball takes center stage.