- June 22, 2010
- NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
March Madness: A Study in Hype
How were your predictions for the final four? For the NCAA championship? Well, your predictions were as good as the sportscasters. Such hype!
Betting on March Madness
As a handicapper whose basis for selections consists almost exclusively on fundamental and situational analysis, I don't change my methods during the frenzied betting period aptly nicknamed March Madness. However, that being said, there are some additional situational factors that apply to this season ending span of college basketball which must be considered, and I'll point out a few along with key fundamental aspects that have delivered success for me in handicapping these games.
NCAA Conference Tournaments
March Madness is the official term of the NCAA Division I-A men's basketball tournament, but the actual madness begins two weeks earlier. The conference tournaments are just as wild, if not wilder. The conference tournaments are completed in three or four days, with some teams playing each day. This is where the Cinderellas get their invites to the ball, where below .500 teams come from nowhere to win championships and the automatic berths that come with it. This is where bubbles are burst or teams earn the right to compete for a national title.
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, both conference champions and at-large selections. The tournament, organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and was the brainchild of Kansas coach Phog Allen Held mostly in March, it is informally known as March Madness or the Big Dance; the tournament, and especially the national semi-finals and final (the Final Four), has become one of the nation's most prominent sporting events.
The tournament bracket has included conference tournament champions from each Division I conference, which receive automatic bids. The remaining slots are at-large berths, with teams chosen by an NCAA selection committee. The selection process and tournament seedings are based on several factors, including team rankings, win-loss records and RPI data. The lowest-seeded teams compete in the "opening round games" to determine which will join the other 66 teams in the first round of the tournament.
A Most Outstanding Player award is given by the Associated Press at the end of each tournament.
At 11 national titles, UCLA holds the record for the most NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships; John Wooden, also known as the Wizard of Westwood, coached UCLA to 10 of its 11 titles. The University of Kentucky is second, with 7 national titles, while Indiana University and University of North Carolina are tied for third with 5 national titles, and current champion Duke University ranks fifth, with 4 national titles.
The tournament is televised on CBS in the United States, except for the play-in game.
On April 22, 2010, it was announced that the NCAA had reached a new 14-year, $11 billion deal with CBS Sports and TimeWarner-owned Turner Sports for the rights to broadcast the NCAA Tournament from 2011-2024. Additionally, the tournament will be expanded to 68 teams starting in 2011.