![]() In the beginning, there were eight teams. But its history serves as a concrete example of the metoric rise in the NCAA bracket's popularity from the mid-70s to today. At the same bar, in 2006, 150,000 entered, and prize money exceeded $1.5 million. So much money was exchanged that the federal government took notice, and the bar's pool went on a hiatus*. 88 people filled out brackets in the pool that year, and paid $10 in a winner-take-all format. The first NCAA bracket pool-putting some money where your bracket is-is thought to have started in 1977 in a Staten Island bar. It wasn't until the tournament expanded to 64 teams-and upsets became easier-that the NCAA bracket became a national phenomenon. "There’s that desire to try to predict something that’s difficult to predict." Forty years ago, picking a winner in the NCAA tournament was easy (spell it with me: U-C-L-A), and people weren't filling out brackets. Only once have four 1 seeds made it to the Final Four (2008) a 10 seed won't get to the Final Four, but an 11 seed might (it's happened three times).īut the bracket's fickle nature isn't its downfall: it's a large part of the bracket's appeal. "Some things seem so obvious, like the idea these higher seeds should beat lower seeds all the time, but that doesn’t necessarily happen, and that results in all sorts of chaos," explains Ken Pomeroy, creator of the college basketball website. A 16 seed has never beaten a 1 seed, but that's about the only constant. In reality, the NCAA tournament's outcome historically complicates the bracket's facade of simplicity, laughing in the face of die-hard fans who study all season as those who fill out a bracket based on mascot/color preference take the winnings. ![]() The bracket is an elegant solution to the age-old problem of how to effectively separate the best from the worst. Over 60 million Americans fill out a bracket each year, with 1 billion dollars potentially spent on off-book gambling. The odds are definitely never in our favor-but that isn’t enough to quell America’s fascination with the tournament bracket. From breaking news to Bracketology to team analysis, real-time scores, picks, award-winning commentary and more, CBS Sports has you blanketed with up-to-the-minute coverage across the sport.Ĭlick here to enlarge and print the NCAA Tournament bracket.The odds of it happening are one in 9.2 quintillion: you’re more likely to die an excruciating death by vending machine, become president, win the Mega Millions jackpot or die from incorrectly using products made for right-handed people (if you're a lefty) than fill out a perfect NCAA basketball bracket in 2014. While you're here, be sure to check out the most extensive digital coverage of college basketball and the NCAA Tournament that you can find anywhere. Here is the link to print a 2023 NCAA Tournament bracket. The long offseason, alas, is now underway. Below, you can print out the full bracket, all 67 games. Villanova has passed the torch to UConn, which will head into the offseason as the No. It's also a huge year for the Big East, which has seen three national championships since 2016. Connecticut clearly earned its coronation and its rightful place among college basketball blue bloods. ![]() A wild season that was thought to have no great teams did in fact have one. The Huskies ran away from San Diego State 76-59 to become the first team in tournament history to win each of their six games by 13 or more points.ĭan Hurley is the third UConn coach to win a national championship, joining Jim Calhoun and Kevin Ollie. From unranked in the preseason to national champions! UConn is 5-0 in title games and sits atop the sport for the fifth time in the past 25 seasons.
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