March is a month full of all kinds of madness. But it’s not just the everyday madness of work and school. Everywhere you turn the fans are going crazy and no one can stop talking about the events the night before. Because this is not any kind of madness, it is March Madness.  

March Madness is the time of year when the biggest college basketball tournament takes center stage across the country with every fans’ eyes fixated on their TVs. Everyone is waiting to see if their team will advance and the stakes are high. There will be days full of excitement as well as upsets with the souls of fans and players being crushed. 

While no games of the tournament were played on Sunday, March 13, there were already teams who had to suffer the pain the tournament wreaked. Many athletes sat surrounded by their coaches and teammates while they tuned in to find out which teams would get a chance to compete in March Madness. Many jumped for joy at the news of their team being placed in the infamous bracket while other teams just missed the cut.

The set bracket was released after the closing of the final conference tournament games which determined the teams that would be crowned the winners of their conference. After a tight game, Iowa secured their spot as Big 10 champs, upsetting Purdue in a game that certainly had fans on their feet. The University of Houston was crowned the top team in the AAC defeating Memphis by an astounding 18 points. Tennessee clinched the SEC title against Texas A&M who had a phenomenal showing at the SEC tournament making it all the way to the final ranked 8th in the SEC. Arizona took home the PAC-12 trophy securing a defiant spot in the March Madness tournament over closely-ranked UCLA. In the ACC tournament #7 ranked Virginia Tech upset the notorious Duke Blue Devils who were ranked number one in the ACC. To finish out, Villanova defeated Creighton to claim themselves champs of the Big East tournament.  

March Madness games start on Tuesday, March 15 with the First Four who still need to play a game in order to see their teams’ name placed in the brackets for the official first round of 64. Indiana and Wyoming compete to see which one will play Saint Mary’s and Texas A&M-CC will play Texas Southern to see who will face Kansas. On Wednesday the last two games before the official tournament take place between Notre Dame and Rutgers for a chance to play Alabama.  Bryant will also play Wright State for a chance to play Arizona. 

Get ready college basketball fans because it is going to be a wild ride the next few weeks. As each round of games approaches, I will be making predictions for which teams will advance and which teams will fall short. Below is the bracket for the first sixteen games on Thursday, March 17. Stay tuned for the predictions and to see the brackets narrow down as each round gets us one step closer to determining the College Basketball National Champion.