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Connecticut celebrated its second consecutive NCAA tournament title by defeating Purdue last season. ... [+] (Photo by Tyler Schank/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
NCAA Photos via Getty Images
College basketball’s annual rite of spring — the NCAA men’s and women’s championship tournaments — begin in earnest this weekend. Upsets identified. Brackets filled.
Yet for all the on-court madness that “March Madness” engenders during the three weeks of tournament play, there is a method to the way teams are selected and seeded.
Before we get started, one thing is clear: The NCAA is serious about this, and it is a money-maker. March Madness is a federally registered trademark, as are The Big Dance, The Final Four, The Elite Eight and The Road the the Final Four, with or without the ‘The.’
CBS and Warner Brothers Discovery are in the first year of an eight-year extension that will pay the NCAA as much as a billion dollars a year through 2032, according to reported figures.
This season, Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida earned the No. 1 seeds in the men’s bracket, and UCLA, South Carolina, USC and Texas are the top seeds in the women’s field.
The process for choosing the field is well-defined, if not without its controversy. (See North Carolina.)
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