March is a great month! Filled with St. Patrick’s. Day, spring break for college and high school students, the start of spring, and of course, the most important, March Madness! Brackets and upsets galore! I remember begging my dad to make my first bracket when I was younger and since then I’ve been completely hooked, and look forward to March each year. The schedule for the Men’s March Madness was just released by the NCAA, so let’s take a look and see how it’s going to shake out this year.
Courtesy of the NCAA
It will all begin on March 17 for Selection Sunday, where the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee releases who will be playing who, how they will be ranked, and what side of the bracket they will be on.
On March 19th and 20th, the first four will take place. The NCAA Tournament Selection Committee ranks every team that qualifies for the tournament 1 through 64. This part of the tournament has eight teams, which are the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and four of the lowest-seeded at-large teams. The at-large teams will face the at-large teams and the automatic qualifiers will play the automatic qualifiers. The winners will continue into the tournament.
The First Round will take place March 21-22 all throughout the United States. Teams will be playing at one of the following locations:
UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio
Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina
Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana
CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska
PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Vivint Smart Home Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena in Spokane, Washington
FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee
There will be four regions, with16 teams in each region. The No. 1 ranked team will play the No. 16 ranked team, the No. 2 ranked team will play the No. 15 ranked team, and the matching will proceed in that pattern from there. The winners will then move on to the second round and will be playing in these same locations from March 23-24.
Courtesy of the NCAA
The regional matchups for the Sweet 16 will take place in the following locations:
East Regional: TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts
South Regional: American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas
Midwest Regional: Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan
West Regional: Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California
The next round, known as the Elite Eight, will also take place in these locations from March 30-31.
This year, the Final Four will be hosted by Arizona State University at State Farm Stadium on April 6th. Finals will be hosted at the same location on April 8th!
Courtesy of the NCAA
March is one of the best months of the year and I am so excited to see what this year of March Madness has in store. Please wish me luck on my bracket because last year was not-so good and I need all the luck to do better this year. Best of luck to everyone else out there, but I’m out to win, just like the 64 teams entering this tournament.
Edited by Emilia Morello
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