The Madness at Northeast

Natalie Laurent

March is jammed packed with the best college basketball teams competing for the winning title of the March Madness Tournament. For fans it is a time for celebrating glory or relishing in defeat. A time for nail biting moments or a time for pats on the back. What really gets the fans going is the creating of their very own bracket and predicting who will win it all.

March madness was first held on March 17, 1939 with only eight teams according to NCAA. Now, in recent years, there are 68 teams competing in this single elimination tournament every spring. With more teams the odds are low for filling out a perfect bracket. Warren Buffet created this deal back in 2014 that whoever has a perfect bracket would be granted one billion dollars according to Bleacher Report. Someone has yet to win that chunk of money and it won’t be easy. According to NCAA the probability of having a perfect bracket is 1 in 9.2 quintillion, that’s a nine with eighteen zeros after it.

“I fill out a bracket to pass time and I enjoy watching the games as well, but to keep it short this year my bracket didn’t turn out too well,” Lance Vie said.

The suspense of the games keeps fans engaged. Anything can happen during a game to cause disruption in people’s predictions. Upsets are when a team with a lower seed beats a team with a higher seed. These upsets can be big game changers and affect the outcome of the tournament.

“Oral Roberts upsetting Ohio state was a game changer this year,” Lance said, “A 15 seed beating a number 2 seed is pretty uncommon.”

As the madness dies down as the tournament comes to an end, fans can enjoy watching a highlight video from all the major events that happened during the tournament. Played to the song ‘One Shining Moment’ by David Barrett. The highlight video revisits buzzer beater shots, fan moments, upsets and more. The highlight video is a farewell or a see you next spring to fans all around.