In just over three months, college basketball betting enthusiasts will grow 10fold, as the annual March Madness Tournament will take place. The month long tournament, has 68 teams qualify for a shot at being named the National Champion. To properly assess who the National Champion will be, bookie software agents on behalf of the NCAA, organize the tournament to take a month. Today we’ll examine how teams qualify, and how brackets are created.
As we noted earlier, 68 teams technically qualify for the March Madness Tournament. Of those 68 teams, 31 of those teams are given automatic entry into the tournament, for being the top 31 teams in the country. The remaining spots are given to schools that qualify through conference tournament performances. For example, last season the Vanderbilt Commodores qualified for the tournament, after a successful run in the SEC tournament.
Throughout January and February, teams from all of the major conferences battle it out for positioning within the tournament. But, before the tournament can officially get under way, NBA scouts must watch a play – in tournament, between eight schools battling it out for four spots. The eight teams are teams 60 to 68. The four winners of the play in games make up seeds 60 to 64. For the reason that each bracket is different, two of the four play in games will have the winners as the 16 seed in the bracket they are placed in. As well, the two other teams that qualify after the play in will then be put in the 12th seed for the two other brackets.
Once the tournament begins, the first round is called the round of 64. As the name suggests, the four brackets are broken down into 16 games featuring 32 teams per each bracket. The second round is called the round of 32 as the teams that win each game in the first round move onto the second round. Then the third round is the sweet 16, followed up with the elite eight, final four and then the National Title game.
