It’s nearly spring break now, and it may seem that things are starting to wind down.

But don’t get complacent. It’s an important time of year. It’s March Madness!

But what is March Madness?

March Madness is a single elimination college basketball tournament that has sixty-eight different collegiate teams from around the country playing for a chance to win the NCAA basketball trophy. Ever since its inception in 1939, the March Madness tournament has featured the underdogs and reigning champions, and the occasional upset from time to time.

So why is there such a rave for the NCAA basketball tournament towards the end of March?

For the past couple of years, CBS and ESPN have created fill-in brackets for basketball fans to fill in, usually involving a grand prize for the person whose bracket is entirely correct. A bracket is a round-by-round prediction chart for the predicted winner of each game throughout the tournament. But what are your chances of actually picking a bracket that is 100% correct?

The answer is a one in nine quintillion chance (a quintillion has eighteen zeros).

But what influence does making brackets for March Madness have on the ODA community?

Every year, ODA’s Director of Fun Mr. Brewer sets up a school tournament bracket for students to compete for a chance to win a gift-card of the student’s choosing. The student with the bracket that has the most correct picks wins the gift-card and bragging rights after the NCAA basketball tournament has concluded.

“I made the bracket challenge because it’s fun, and because it’s the greatest sporting event for college basketball. It’s the most exciting sporting event, mostly because it goes on for three weeks,” says Mr. Brewer.

So what are some strategies for choosing teams to win certain games? Let’s see how some ODA students approach the NCAA bracket making process.

“I just kind of guess,” says sophomore Gus Mahler.

“I Google each team’s records, rankings, and sometimes I would pick an upset if the two teams are somewhat close in ability” says junior Andrew Berg.

“I just choose who did well last year” says junior Brad Hansel.

“Up until two years ago, I decided on which team’s name I preferred, based on if the college had a geographical name that did or did not sound cool. If the team did not have an interesting name, I wouldn’t pick them. Villanova for example sounds like a really pleasant name for a college. Gonzaga also sounded really exotic and I thought that it would be interesting if they won. I now know a little more about NCAA, and I know which teams are good or bad. UVA all the way! I actually did a little better when I just picked based on the name,” says Mr. Seldis.

So with all of the hype about March Madness going on at ODA, fill out your brackets by your own method of choosing and make sure to be tuned into each exciting game of March Madness!