The 2023 tournament is upon us with round one beginning on March 16th. The teams have played their respective conference tournaments and although wins in those tournaments can help with seeding in the big tourney, winning your conference tournament is not essential to winning the national championship. In fact, 11 of the past 20 years, the national champion failed to secure their own conference championship.
Seeding is very important because the higher you are seeded, the worse teams you play (in theory). For example, the #1 seed starts the tournament by playing the #16 seed. It’s the built-in reward for playing so well leading up to the tournament and having a great overall record. These seeds are chosen on “Selection Sunday”. This is a national televised event where the teams are assigned seeding and regional brackets.
Many people will be asked if they want to participate in a tournament bracket contest in the next few days. Whether it’s at their job, on social media or their family member, someone will broach the topic with them. The more the merrier, as they say. Real money March madness bracket contests are all the rage too. If you can pick about 70% of the games correctly then you can be in the big money.
Wednesday, March 15
Thursday, March 16 – Friday, March 17
Saturday, March 18 – Sunday, March 19
Thursday March 23 – Friday March 24
Saturday March 25 – Sunday March 26
Saturday April 1
Monday, April 3
