As March rolls around, it’s time to talk about the pre-March Madness tournament. The March Madness tournament is a 68-team bracket, where the best college teams and players in the nation compete for the National Championship.
The tournament starts on selection Sunday on March 15 and runs into April, with the championship game being on April 6. The tournament starts with 68 teams, but before the brackets are set, there are eight teams that compete for the final slots. 32 of the teams are decided by the automatic qualifiers, meaning they won their conference tournaments. The other 36 are decided by the NCAA committee.
The brackets are then set at the tournament starting with the 64 teams, then the round of 32, into the sweet 16, then elite eight, final four and finally the championship game.
There are several teams this year with seeming hope to win this tournament. These teams are noted for having the best talent and team working skills to help them be in this rank.
According to bleacherreport.com, “The betting odd favorites are Arizona, Michigan, Duke and Houston for the national championship.”
However, bleacherreport.com reported that there are several other teams that could make a sneaky come up, such as the “Florida Gators, Gonzaga Bull Dogs, Kansas Jayhawks and the dark horse candidates like Vanderbilt.”
The games will be played across the country with games being played from California all the way to New York.
According to espn.com, “For the round of 64 and 32, the games will be played in Buffalo New York, Greenville North Carolina, Oklahoma City, Portland Oregan, Tampa Bay Florida, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, San Diego California and St. Louis Missouri.”
For the sweet 16 and elite eight, the games will be played in “Houston Texas, San Jose California, Chicago Illinois and Washington DC. With the Final Four being played in Indianapolis Indiana,” according to espn.com.
Although there are front runners or unlikely teams to win the National Championship, when it comes to March Madness, anything can happen and nothing should be unexpected.
