Everyone has heard of the term March Madness here at Academy, but few people actually know what it means.  March Madness is basically a giant basketball tournament of the best 64 college teams in the nations that is non stop from mid March till the first week of April.

Most girls clearly do not know about March Madness. Carolina Oliva, grade 11, asked if March Madness was “football?”. Although, Isabella Alfonso, grade 11, knew what she was talking about it when discussed and turned to Carolina and said “Are you kidding?”.

The teams are ranked, 1 through 16 and sorted into four different groups. Each round the numbers divide in half. It begins with 64 teams. There are 32 games the first two days, and the champion of each game moves on to the next round. Then 16 teams who won play 8 games. The 8 winning teams compete for the top four spots.

Whoever comes victorious out of the 8 teams become part of the “Final Four”. The “Final Four” is a big deal. For the final four, there are only two games. The two games narrow down to two teams who play for the final championship.

In summary, the whole tournament starts with 64 and divides in half after each round until it ends up with one winner!

Apart of the “Madness” is in the brackets where everyone creates guesses for the tournament. This is what all the tweets are about!

The brackets are actually really complex. Especially since you start from 64 teams and narrow it down to one! You guess based on statistics, rankings, and pure luck. No one has ever gotten a bracket completely correct due to upsets and rankings prior.

People tend to create small groups and create bets on whoevers bracket is closest. My 11 year old brother, my 49 year old father, and I all have brackets and play in the guessing! Brackets are how everyone participates in their own way! Happy March Madness and may the odds be in your favor.

The big day is April 6th! Watch the final championship on CBS and hope your team makes it!