A Billion-Dollar Tournament

March Madness basketball is a historic event, uniting colleges all around the nation in an intense and thrilling tournament aimed at identifying the best college team. The tournament began in 1939, its first mention appearing in the Illinois Interscholastic, the magazine of the IHSA. The name quickly gained traction, and during the 1940s and 1950s, its popularity grew significantly until it became the official title for the event. This season, there are 68 teams from all over the USA playing to see who is the best.

Since this event has gained a significant amount of popularity in recent years, people often forget this tournament has been played since 1939. The modern adaptation of March Madness brings in millions of viewers, with the 2023 March Madness final bringing in nearly 14 million viewers and the event grossing nearly 900 million dollars. The early tournaments had much smaller viewership due to limited access to media. Additionally, the tournament has expanded significantly, from having eight teams participating, which included Brown, Ohio State, Villanova, Wake Forest, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Utah State, to the 68-team structure displayed today. Originally created to determine which college basketball team was best in the nation, it has changed into more of a competition between fans, captivating them with exciting moments and upsets.

This year's NCAA March Madness tournament is expected to be an exciting event, with many anticipated rematches from past years and tensions rising between teams. One of the biggest rematches includes Kansas and Arkansas, which, after Arkansas’s upset last year, will prove to be an intense game (Last game ended 89-78). The game occurred on 3/20, with Arkansas winning 79-72. Another element that adds to the excitement of the event is the brackets people can fill out. The chances of getting a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion, which is astronomically low; however, if you do manage to get one, you will win a prize of 1 billion dollars. As of right now, no one has achieved the perfect bracket, the closest being in 2017, when someone managed to predict the first 39 games out of 63.  

As this year’s March Madness comes to a close, only a few more matches are set to happen. Auburn will be playing Florida for a chance at the championship, as well as Duke will be playing Houston all on April 5th.