March Madness officially kicks off on Sunday, March 13, 2022. Basketball fans around the world will be glued to their phones and TVs, tracking how their favorite teams perform in the NCAA's single-elimination basketball tournament. The three-week annual tournament is huge, accounting for more than 85% of the NCAA's revenues.
According to some estimates, 70 million people fill out brackets and participate in March Madness pools. Their goal is to predict the winner of the NCAA championship. A lot of research is required to get a good read on the competition, and fans often check out the NCAA championship odds to see where their favorite teams stand.
Before filling out your brackets, it's important to have a good grasp of the March Madness terminology, and we're here to help you out. Since college basketball's biggest tournament gets underway in just a couple of weeks, now's a good time to review some of its most essential terms.
Brackets
If you've ever participated in a school or office March Madness pool, you're already familiar with brackets. Brackets are the tournament's tree diagram that shows the two teams facing off against each other to move forward in the contest.
The single-elimination tournament results in one team winning in four regions of the United States. The winners are known as the Final Four, and they battle it out for the championship. Offices across the country have employee pools, and groups of friends often have pools too. It's usually a morning ritual to complain about how poorly your picks are doing.
If you're participating in a March Madness pool, a good strategy is to pick a few upsets, especially if there are a lot of people participating in the pool. In contrast, if the pool is small, it's best to stick with the favorites.
The Big Dance
Another name for the NCAA tournament is the dance or the big dance. The nickname started when Marquette basketball coach Al McGuire told a reporter, "you gotta wear the blue blazer when you go to the big dance." That was 1977, Marquette went on to win the championship that year, and the name stuck.
The College Basketball Power Index (BPI)
ESPN created the BPI ranking system to measure a team's strength and predict how that team will perform in the contest. When you look at a team's BPI, you're supposed to get an idea of how far above or below average the particular team is at that moment in time.
Strength of Record (SOR)
The SOR measures a team's accomplishments based on how difficult it was to achieve their win-loss record. A game's predictions consider the distance traveled, altitude, days' rest, the pace of play, and site with numbers updated daily.
Seed
Sixty-eight teams across the NCAA earn bids to the tournament, with each team receiving a seed from one to sixteen. A team's seed determines where the team will be placed in each regional competition. The highest-ranked team in each regional bracket faces off against the lowest-ranked team in the bracket. So, the highly-ranked teams have a smoother path to the championship.
Bracket Buster
As expected, every year, there are major upsets during the NCAA tournament. When a weaker team defeats a higher-ranked, arguably stronger team, it's known as a bracket buster. Since most people bet the stronger team will go further than the weaker team in the tournament, when a statistically stronger team loses to a weaker opponent, it "busts the bracket." Upsets are part of the fun and charm of the single-elimination NCAA tournament.
Sweet Sixteen (March 24-25)
Even if you don't watch college basketball, you've probably heard about the Sweet Sixteen in passing. The Sweet Sixteen represents the third round of the tournament when only 16 teams remain. The teams that win move onto the "Elite Eight."
Elite Eight (March 26-27)
At this point, only eight teams are left in the fourth round of the tournament, known as the regional championships. The winning teams advance to the national semifinals or the "Final Four."
Final Four (April 2)
The tournament's fifth round, where only four teams remain in the competition, determines which teams move on to the championship game.
