Is March Madness single- or double-elimination? Explained

The best part of the NCAA Tournament is that it is single-elimination. It is win or go home. Survive and advance. It is not a seven-game series. There is no initial group stage. It is a pure knockout round from 68 teams down to one final champion.

The madness comes from all the upsets and dramatic buzzer beaters. Cinderella stories like No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s last season are what the tournament is all about. A small school like Saint Peter’s would likely never win a seven-game series against Kentucky, but in the tournament, it just needs to be better on one night. Thus is the cruel nature and poetic beauty of the tournament.

Single-elimination delivers the drama.

It takes six wins to raise the trophy. Or seven if you start from the First Four games. No team has won the national championship from the First Four yet. VCU in 2011 and UCLA in 2021 are the only two teams to advance to the Final Four after starting in the First Four. Five teams from First Four games have advanced to the Sweet 16.

This season, No. 11 seed Pittsburgh won its first-round game after advancing from the First Four but fell in the second round to No. 3 seed Xavier.

The NCAA Tournament has whittled the field down to 16 teams from 68 teams. The Sweet 16 tips off on Thursday with four games, followed by four more games on Friday.

The NCAA Tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2011 and 64 teams in 1985.

The tournament is set up into four regions: East, West, Midwest and South. Each bracket has 16 teams that are seeded one through 16. This does not include the First Four games. The favorites in each region are seeded No. 1. Thirty-two conference tournament champions receive an automatic berth, and the rest of the field is filled with 36 at-large teams selected by a committee.