By: Kai Wang

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball championships are one of the most widely-watch sporting events in the United States. This tournament involves 68 college basketball teams from across the country competing for the national championship title.

An Illinois high school official first used March Madness about basketball in 1939. March Madness wouldn’t be associated with the NCAA tournament until sports announcer, Brent Musberger used it during the 1982 men’s NCAA championship game.

In the tournament, four of the 68 teams are eliminated in the opening round. The remaining 64 teams are divided into four groups of 16 teams each. The teams are then ranked 1 to 16. The first-round games pit the top teams against the bottom teams in each group. For example, the No. 1 seed plays the No. 16 seed, the No. 2 seed plays the No. 16 seed, and so on. This gives higher-ranked teams a better chance to move on to the next round, but there are many unexpected upsets.

Every year, millions of Americans try to guess who will win in each of the 63 games of the NCAA tournament. It’s no easy feat since experts estimate that the chances of a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillions; that’s 17 zeros. The closest bracket was 49 correct predictions in 2019 by Gregg Nigl.