By Gabrielle Rackner
In 1939 the University of Oregon beat Ohio State to win first ever NCAA Basketball tournament, often called March Madness. There were only eight teams invited in the tournament in the beginning and has now grown to a 65 team format decided in 2001. Since then the tournament has grown in popularity and importance. It has evolved and become a tournament for attracting students to their schools, showing off their basketball team, and of course winning that trophy.
Not just are the players involved with March Madness, but many people in the U.S. get involved by predicting the winners in the tournament by using a bracket. Brackets are fun and competitive with friends because usually the person with the winning bracket gets a prize. It also helps people get more connected with the tournament and follow it more frequently. Some people do research or have been following the teams year round but others just pick teams based off the higher seeded team in the match-up. But, it is good to not always rely on the rankings because often there are upsets, and the upsets are part of the beauty and excitement of March Madness. It is great when your predictions are spot on but sometimes it sucks when your teams that you predicted for the Final Four are losing in the third round to a worse team. But remember, there are upsets.
Since the University of Oregon’s win in 1939 there have been a total of 77 winners in the history of the NCAA tournament. From UCLA with the most March Madness wins, to Kentucky, to Duke who won last year’s March Madness tournament.
Be sure to follow this year’s 78th annual NCAA Basketball tournament which starts on March 17th (but the match-ups are announced on March 13th) and grab some friends and a bracket and get ready for a month of madness!