March Madness is the NCAA Division I men's basketball championship, a single-elimination tournament of 68 teams competing for the national championship. It starts with the First Four, followed by four rounds to the Final Four and the final championship game. Selection Sunday in mid-March reveals the complete bracket, with automatic qualifiers and at-large bids selected by the NCAA selection committee. The tournament bracket was initially eight teams in 1939, which was increased to 16 in 1951, and up to 64 in 1985. It increased to 68 teams in 2011, with the addition of the First Four round. The games are played at neutral locations throughout the tournament, with venues changing every year.
March Madness was first associated with the NCAA tournament in 1982 by sports broadcaster Brent Musburger. Teams are seeded 1 through 16 in four regions, which impacts the matchup and progression through the bracket. Higher seeds play against the lower-seeded teams in preliminary rounds. The tournament is covered on TBS, CBS, TruTV, and TNT with streaming options available on March Madness Live. UCLA is the team that has won the most NCAA tournaments, with 11. UConn has won the most NCAA women’s Championships with 11, followed by Tennessee with eight.
UConn, under head coach Dan Hurley, won the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. They beat Purdue with a score of 75–60 in the championship final. The match took place at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. South Carolina won the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship with an 87–75 margin against Iowa at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
Points Elite 8 games are worth
Elite 8 games are worth eight points in a standard March Madness bracket, as per the NCAA. Below is a breakdown of the points awarded after winning each round:
| Round | Points |
| First Round | 1 point |
| Second Round | 2 points |
| Sweet 16 | 4 points |
| Elite 8 | 8 points |
| Final Four | 16 points |
| Championship | 32 points |
FAQs on March Madness
A. 68 teams compete in the NCAA March Madness tournament.
A. The Selection Sunday is the day when the March Madness tournament bracket is revealed.
A. A team must win six games, or seven if in the First Four.
A. Final Four is the semifinal round featuring the last four teams.
