March Madness for Dummies – What You Need to Know for the Tournament

If you haven't kept up with it, we've got the cliff notes for you.

March Madness is officially in progress. It’s a fun time for basketball fans to gather and watch games and even have a bit of friendly competitions with the brackets. If all of that sounds foreign to you, we’ve got a cliff notes version to catch you up to speed.  The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hosts a basketball tournament every year that begins the week of March 15.  The tournament includes 68 men’s teams and 64 women’s teams. Just 32 teams gain automatic entry due to winning their conference’s championships.  The remaining teams rely on a selection committee to be granted entry.   The brackets and seeds are released to the public on selection Sunday.   Brackets are out now.  It began March 15 with the First Four and then in earnest on March 17 with the 64-team playoff.  The winner from each bracket moves to the next set until eventually all teams have been weeded out, with 2 playing for the championship game.