March Madness!
By Jack Benoist (3-22-24)
Hello 442, as some of you may know March madness is going on! In this article I will explain how March madness works and some facts about the tournament.
The first NCAA (national college athletes association) Division 1 men's basketball tournament was played in 1939. Eight teams competed, Oregon being the champion. The NCAA tournament grew to 16 teams in 1951 and then doubled to 32 teams in 1975. Now in 2024 it’s grown to 68 teams. If you were wondering how the tournament works I will answer that. Before the tournament the NCAA committee comes together and decides what teams will play in March madness. Then the First Four play in to determine who will take the final spots in the tournament. The first round of the tournament pretty much determines who moves on to the second round. The second round decides who will move onto the sweet 16. The sweet 16 definition is very self explanatory: it is the final 16 teams left in the tournament. The next round of the tournament is the Elite Eight, which is the last eight teams. The winners of the Elite Eight move onto the Final Four, which will decide who will go to the Championships. This year’s finals will be played in Phoenix, Arizona, where a front row seat costs $3,500. Who will make it? One of the top seeds? This year the top seeds are UConn, Houston, North Carolina, and last but not least Purdue.
There is another tournament that happens in March: March Mammal Madness. The name can be deceiving, because it’s not just mammals that compete. March Mammal Madness is a nationwide tournament where more than 9,500 educators and 870,000 learners make brackets in the same way that you would make a bracket for March Madness, but instead of teams, it’s animals that compete. The tournament works in the same style as the actual March Madness. Instead of teams getting ranked, animals get ranked according to an educated guess about which animal would win in a simulated fight. Keep in mind, no animals get hurt.
Around the same time we will also be having a schoolwide rock paper scissors tournament. Each class will have a rock paper scissors tournament, then the winners of each class will compete at the student for staff basketball games to decide a champion. Enjoy the Madness.
The first NCAA (national college athletes association) Division 1 men's basketball tournament was played in 1939. Eight teams competed, Oregon being the champion. The NCAA tournament grew to 16 teams in 1951 and then doubled to 32 teams in 1975. Now in 2024 it’s grown to 68 teams. If you were wondering how the tournament works I will answer that. Before the tournament the NCAA committee comes together and decides what teams will play in March madness. Then the First Four play in to determine who will take the final spots in the tournament. The first round of the tournament pretty much determines who moves on to the second round. The second round decides who will move onto the sweet 16. The sweet 16 definition is very self explanatory: it is the final 16 teams left in the tournament. The next round of the tournament is the Elite Eight, which is the last eight teams. The winners of the Elite Eight move onto the Final Four, which will decide who will go to the Championships. This year’s finals will be played in Phoenix, Arizona, where a front row seat costs $3,500. Who will make it? One of the top seeds? This year the top seeds are UConn, Houston, North Carolina, and last but not least Purdue.
There is another tournament that happens in March: March Mammal Madness. The name can be deceiving, because it’s not just mammals that compete. March Mammal Madness is a nationwide tournament where more than 9,500 educators and 870,000 learners make brackets in the same way that you would make a bracket for March Madness, but instead of teams, it’s animals that compete. The tournament works in the same style as the actual March Madness. Instead of teams getting ranked, animals get ranked according to an educated guess about which animal would win in a simulated fight. Keep in mind, no animals get hurt.
Around the same time we will also be having a schoolwide rock paper scissors tournament. Each class will have a rock paper scissors tournament, then the winners of each class will compete at the student for staff basketball games to decide a champion. Enjoy the Madness.
