March Madness is the time of year when basketball fans get to enjoy some great action from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s tournament.
This is when the 64 best college basketball teams in the country come together to take part in a single-elimination tournament that captures the imagination of sports fans. You can find out more here if you are interested in knowing more about the rules of March Madness.
So, what are the main reasons that it’s something to look forward to this year?
An Easy to Understand Format
The single-elimination method makes this a thrilling tournament from start to finish. 64 teams begin the tournament and each game sees the winner progress and the loser leave. This means that the field drops from 64 teams to 32, then to 16, and so on until we discover who the eventual winner is. This year, four more teams can play their way in, meaning that there are 68 teams in total, but it remains a very simple tournament to follow.
If you like watching basketball but don’t have the time or interest to look into league tables and work out what will happen next, March Madness is perfect for you since you can just sit back and relax, watching only the games that interest you. You can pick up on the action at any point in any game and take it from there.
Watch as many or as few games as you want to, and you’ll never feel like you don’t know what is going on. This is why it’s so popular among casual fans who just want to drop in to watch a few games, as well as for hardcore basketball fans looking to immerse themselves in the sport. It’s one of the year’s most accessible sporting events and it’s suitable for just about everyone. If you want to learn to bet on March Madness games, check out Doc’s Sports for college basketball advice and start making a few bucks.
You Can Bet on the Entire Bracket or Single Games
Any big sporting event provides fans with the chance to add some more excitement by placing bets. In the case of March Madness, this is even better because it gives you various ways of placing your wagers. For example, at the start of the tournament, all 68 teams are split into brackets that show you their potential route to the championship game at the very end.
Do you think you could predict which team will get all the way through their bracket and win the final game? It’s certainly not easy to do, with so many variables to take into account. This is why the odds are generous for this kind of bet. Big teams like the Gonzaga Bulldogs, the Duke Blue Devils, and the Kentucky Wildcats are among the favorites at the time of writing.
Another option is to bet on individual games or on player performances in the games they play. Maybe you like the look of a certain team and decide to bet on their games in each of the rounds they compete in. Or maybe you prefer to simply tune in and see who is playing, betting as the games progress rather than sticking to any sort of plan.
The Games Come Thick and Fast
The first weekend sees just the top 16 teams make it through to the next stage. After this, the second weekend of March Madness whittles the field down to the Elite Eight followed by the Final Four. It all happens so quickly that it’s the perfect way to enjoy lots of basketball in very little time.
The last weekend is when we find out what the last two teams remaining are, and they then take part in the championship game. This actually rolls over into the start of April this year, but the March Madness name is so familiar to us that everyone still uses it.
The NCAA college basketball tournament is spread out over three weekends in total. It all starts on March 13 with Selection Sunday, followed by the first four events. The first round takes place on March 17 and 18, immediately followed by the second round. The action continues in this vein, right up until the Final Four on April 2, followed by the NCAA Championship game on April 4.
Games Are Played Across the Country
If you like the idea of going to see games live, then this is made easier by the fact that they are played all across the country. The tournament begins in Dayton, Ohio before games take place in the likes of Buffalo, New York and Fort Worth, Texas.
The Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight sections are to be played in San Antonio Texas, while the final games will be at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. These games are amazing spectacles, and this look at some of the greatest comebacks in the history of the tournament shows us how exciting they can be.
The other option is to watch the games on TV, with all of the games shown live. Since so many games are played simultaneously, you’ve got the choice of choosing a team to follow or else flicking between games.
Look Out for Future NBA Stars
The top players in March Madness are likely to be the future stars of the NBA. The 2024 draft featured Jalen Suggs, who had helped drive Gonzaga to the championship with a buzzer beater to win the Final Four game against UCLA. Although Gonzaga lost to the Baylor Bears in the final, Suggs was fifth pick in the NBA draft by the Orlando Magic shortly afterwards.
Evan Mobley was another talented college player who caught a lot of people’s attention in the 2024 tournament. Playing for the USC Trojans, he was rated as arguably the best player in the event. After the dust had settled from these games, Mobley was the third overall pick in the draft when he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In fact, in the last decade or so, 15 freshmen who reached the Sweet Sixteen stage have then been among the NBA draft’s top five picks. Apart from Suggs and Mobley, other players to go down this route have included Bradley Beal, Anthony Davis, and Zion Williamson. See if you can spot who the next big NBA stars are at this year’s games.