I was always way more interested in playing basketball than watching others play basketball. But it's such a common topic of conversation this month that I figured it wouldn't hurt to read a little about it so I'm better informed about how this event works. Understanding how the tournament works requires a basic understanding of how sports teams are organized within the NCAA.
NCAA
The NCAA is a non-profit institution that oversees the rules and regulations of collegiate level sports. There are about 1,300 members in the NCAA (most of whom are four year and second year colleges).
Division & Conferences
Schools that are part of the NCAA fall into one of three major divisions: Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3. Basically, Division 1 are the major sports schools like North Carolina or Michigan State and only D1 schools are eligible to participate in the national tournament. Sorry, D2 and D3. D1 and D2 members differ from D3 in a few key ways. D3 schools cannot offer sports scholarships to athletes, they tend to be much smaller schools, and they have fewer (usually less than 5) sports teams.
Within the category of D1 schools in the NCAA, the members are also associated by region. There are 32 official NCAA conferences that each correspond to a group of schools in a particular region. For example, the Big East which includes schools like Villanova and St. Johns. Every conference has a conference tournament that takes place before March Madness.
Before March
We know that there are 68 teams for men's are invited to participate. Well, what are those teams? How exactly do they qualify? Two ways.
1. Automatic bids
Before the national championship, there are conference tournaments. The champion of each conference automatically qualify for the national championship. Since there are 32 conferences, there are 32 teams that are automatically offered a spot in the tournament.
2. At large bids
After the 32 teams qualify, there are still 36 spots left! Those 36 teams are picked by a group of conference commissioners and university sports directors that make up the Selection Committee. They all get together in a hotel about a week before the first round of the tournament to vote on who gets those spots.
Once the final list of teams is complete, it's revealed by the committee on Selection Day (Sunday).
Match-ups
Seeding & Brackets
Now that the teams are finalized, who is playing against who? The match ups is also known as brackets. The first series of match ups is known as the first bracket - the winners of this first series of matches will then determine the next bracket.
Before the first brackets can be formed, the 68 teams are divided into four geographical regions (West, East, South, Midwest) and the selection committee then "seeds" (ranks) the teams in each region from 1-16. The number one seed is considered the best team in a region.
Once the regional seeds are determined, the regional brackets are formed based on a simple rule: match the top available seed with the lowest available seed. This creates the following match ups for each region:
1 - 16
2 - 15
3 - 14
4 - 13
5 - 12
...
Since there are four regions, each with 16 seeds, that's only 64 teams. In the men's NCAA tournament, there are 68 teams. That doesn't quite add up - so what's up with that? Well, there's actually an initial round of elimination known as the First Four. It refers to the first four games that take place between Selection Day and the first round of the tournament.
8 teams participate in the First Four. They're the four lowest ranked teams selected by automatic bids and the four lowest ranked teams selected by at large bids. After the First Four, there will be exactly 64 teams evenly distributed in the four regions.
You're probably wondering: why not just limit the number of teams to 64 to avoid this complication? No idea.
Location, location, location
Pods and Venues
Now that we have our match ups, where will they play? The logistics of where the games will take place is based on the Pod System which sets the rules for where the games take place during the regional tournaments in order to minimize travel for the athletes.
- A pod is a group of teams assigned to play at a site / venue
- Each region has 4 pod
- Each pod is assigned four teams
The venues for the Final Four and Championship games are selected through a different process. Those big games take place in major stadiums such as the Madison Square Garden. The final four game last night (Syracuse vs NC) took place at the Texas NRG Stadium.
Tournament
Okay, so we've seeded the teams, planted them into brackets, and assigned them to play at different sites, and determined the venues for the last two rounds of the tournament.
Let the tournament begin!
Regional Competition
First Round, Second Rounds, Regional Semifinals, and Finals
The first round eliminates 8 teams from a total of 16 in each region. The second round leaves 4 teams. The final two regional rounds determines the team in each region that moves on to the Final Four.
National Competition
Final Four, Championship Game
The Final Four is the semi-finals since the winners of the final four will compete for the championship title.
Game Rules
If you've watched NBA games, you probably know that the games are made up of four quarters of playtime. Each quarter is 12 minutes. In the NCAA, there are only two half's. Each half is 20 minutes.
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