The weather is improving, the days are getting longer and midterms are underway. This can only mean one thing: March Madness is nearing. The madness begins on March 15, as college basketball will take center stage in national sports. The pivotal selection process will occur this upcoming Sunday, while games will start on March 17. This also happens to also be St. Patrick’s Day, so perhaps your bracket will receive some good luck.
68 teams compete in the tournament. Each champion from the 31 conference tournaments across the nation will instantly earn a spot in the NCAA basketball tournament. An impartial committee then awards 37 other teams a spot in the tournament based on team record, stability and opinion.
Fans can expect to see returning champions, the University of Florida Gators, in the tournament. Duke University and University of Connecticut are also early favorites, but that’s nothing new. What is new is that Tennessee State University will be in the tournament for the first time since 1994, making it their first appearance in more than 30 years.
With less than a week until the first game of the tournament, there are several teams who are competing for the final spots. One of those teams is the Miami University Redhawks. This team entered its conference tournament with a perfect record, 31-0, but are in what college basketball fans call “the bubble.” Despite not losing a game, they had a relatively easier schedule this past season. Nonetheless, many fans still contend that their record proves their competitiveness. Regardless if they make it or not, they have caught the attention of fans nationwide.
Auburn University is similarly on the cusp after finishing the last 10 games of their season with only two victories. The Tigers have appeared consistently in March Madness, but 2026 may deviate from this norm.
It will also be interesting to see how the Patriot League is represented this year in the tournament. A Patriot League team has not won a game in March Madness in a decade.
Games will be hosted all over the United States, from Washington to San Diego, Calif. Some of the first games of the tournament will take place in Dayton, Ohio, and on March 19 and 21 the KeyBank Center will host games in Buffalo, N.Y. Indianapolis, Ind. will host the championship game on April 6.
There is a fair chance the winner of the NCAA tournament was not even mentioned in this article, but it is the unpredictability of the tournament that captivates people all over the world. The upsets are inevitable, but it is almost impossible to accurately predict who will upset whom. If history is any indication, nobody will still have a perfect bracket by the time the championship rolls around. Personally, I have never been good at forecasting brackets, but hopefully this year is different. I plan to win my pool this year, but that task is no layup.
Editor’s note: This article was written before Patriot League play finished.
