March Madness is just around the corner, which means folks all over the country will be scrambling to fill out their tournament brackets.
The official March Madness bracket game is one of the most beloved traditions in sports and a great many fans participate every year, with the process attracting folks who typically don’t even care much for college basketball.
While brackets are nearly impossible to get right, with no one ever recording a perfect one, they happen to be pretty fun. In this article, we take you through the basics of setting up a bracket, so if you’re looking to get in on this exciting yearly tradition, then you’ve come to the right place.
The NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments start with brackets each consisting of 64 teams. To play the game, you would need to predict the winner of each of the 63 games. How you go about picking games is up to you. You could leave it all up to guesswork, flip a coin, or seek divine intervention – whatever does it for you.
After you do this, all you’ve got to do is sit back and watch the action. Of course, with so many variables involved, there’s every chance of your bracket blowing up before the first weekend.
You get points for every winner you pick correctly, with the points inflating with every round. Second-round points are worth twice as much as third-round points, and it carries on in the same manner from there. The player in each group with the most points is declared the winner at the end of every round.
Brackets can be extra fun if you do a little betting on the side as you can make some cash on multiple games in every round. New markets have opened up since the last NCAA tournament, and sports betting apps in North Carolina will be available to residents therein for the first time as the state is set to launch legal online betting.
How To Get Started
You can already sign up for the Men’s and Women’s Bracket Challenge by heading to this website. Returning users can sign in using an email address, or with an account from Google, Apple, or Facebook,
New users can sign up for a Play account via email, or with a Google, Facebook, or Apple account. The account can be used to play the Men’s Bracket Challenge game and the Women’s Bracket Challenge Game, as well as Tournament Run, Men’s Conference Tournament Pick’Em, and Women’s Conference Tournament Pick’Em. The games have all been live since February 8.
Important Dates
Sunday, March 17 is Selection Sunday, which is when the selection committee will pick the 68 teams that made the tournament and the final bracket for both the men’s and women’s tournament.
Brackets will be open for picking once they go live.
The men’s tournament will tip off on March 21, with the women’s first round beginning on March 22.
Bracket picking will lock right before the first games begin, so you won’t be able to make any changes for the rest of the tournament, which is why it’s important to ensure that your bracket is complete by then.
The women’s championship game is scheduled for Sunday, April 7. The men’s final will be played on the following night. As expected, bracket scores will be finalized at the end of the respective games.
One of the most exciting aspects of filling out a bracket is the unpredictability of the tournament. Every year, there are Cinderella stories of lower-seeded teams making deep runs in the tournament, pulling off upsets, and busting brackets in the process.
It’s a thrill to watch the games unfold and see how your predictions play out. Plus, it’s a great way to engage with friends and family, as many people create pools where participants can compete against each other to see who can get the most picks correct.
While filling out a bracket may seem daunting, it’s important to remember that no one has ever had a perfect bracket. Even the most knowledgeable college basketball experts get their predictions wrong. So don’t worry too much about getting every game correct – just have fun with it and enjoy the excitement of March Madness. Who knows, you may even end up with a winning bracket and some extra cash in your pocket.