March Madness is one of the most popular sporting events of the year, featuring a giant  tournament where 64 college basketball teams compete against each other for the national championship. The first March Madness tournament took place in 1939, featuring only eight teams, with Oregon beating Ohio State to become the very first March Madness tournament winner.  Today, the 64 teams are divided into 16 groups, each representing a region of the country.  In each region, the top-ranked teams, seeded at number one will face off against the 16th-seeded teams, who are typically considered the underdogs. 

     In all of the years of March Madness, there has only been one time that only once did a 16th-seed team beat a number-one seed, resulting in a record of 431-1. This took place during last year’s tournament when Fairleigh Dickinson University beat Purdue. This tournament engages its fans who wait in anticipation to create their own brackets and place bets on the games.  This adds to the excitement of this event because many people try to create the perfect bracket, something that has yet to be achieved due to the fact that there is never a 100% guaranteed win, no matter how good a team may be. 

     March Madness is a very different atmosphere than the regular season games. The main reason is the reward of winning it all. Sometimes you get the Cinderella Stories, meaning the lower-ranked teams make it farther than expected.. A good example is Loyola Chicago in 2018, ranked 11th seed. They defied all odds by making it to the final four, ultimately losing to Michigan. This memorable showdown made this one of the best Cinderella stories in the tournament’s history. There have been multiple upsets so far in this year’s March Madness, first Oakland(14) beating Kentucky(3) and Yale(13) beating Auburn(4). North Carolina State is the lowest-seeded team in the elite-eight ranked 11th. The elite eight will be played on March 30th and 31st.