With the first round of March Madness starting Thursday, March 21st, basketball fans are starting to make their brackets.Thursday, Michigan State and Minnesota State played at 12:15. At around half time of the MSU game, BYU and Duquesne played as well. According to the NCAA, Michigan State is ranked at 8th in the Big Ten while Minnesota is ranked at 10. So this could be a deal breaker for some of the brackets being filled out. Both teams have a record of 19-14 but their records differ on how many conference games and non conference games they have won. 

Fox News says March Madness began in 1939 in an eight team tournament and it wasn’t until the 1980’s they began to use the term “March Madness”.1939 was also the first year that they began to make it a competition with brackets as well. The name March Madness originated from a large highschool in Illinois that hosted a basketball tournament with up to 900 teams! ESPN states,”No one has ever picked a verified perfect NCAA mens bracket, and it’s probably not going to happen in our lifetime, or the lifetime of our kids, or their kids, or their kids.” 

Now March Madness is a little different from 1939. Instead of eight teams with single elimination,there are 68 teams! According to the NCAA March Madness now has seven rounds. First four, which was introduced in 2011 are four opening round games that just mark the beginning of the tournament.Following the First Four are six rounds of single elimination games which then leads to the Final Four. Where the Four last teams in the tournament play each other for the championship. The highest scoring game was 149-115 which totaled 264 points.