…what is March Madness?
It is the NCAA basketball tournament.
It always happens in March and it drives otherwise sane fans mad with excitement, dissapointment, anger, joy, frustration, loathing, confusion, extacy, etc…
A marketing gimmick.
To expand on Khadaji’s answer:
“March Madness” is the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s term (jointly trademarked between them and the Illinois High School Association) for their annual national basketball tournament.
The Men’s Tournament gets all the press, but the term applies to the women’s as well, I believe.
The tournament is generally considered to be the more prestigious of the two post-season tournaments (the other being the National Invitational Tournament, or NIT). 63 teams are selected and seeded into one of four regions, two more selected teams play and the winner makes it into the main field.
This field is selected from every Division I school in the country, and is based on the teams’ performance throughout the year. The selection process occurs in secret over one weekend, before the picks are revealed on a Sunday (“Selection Sunday”).
It’s a single elimination tournament. There are six rounds. The first two are played at several sites scattered across the country. The next weekend, the action moves to four regional sites (this year, Chicago, Syracuse, Albuquerque and Austin). Finally, the next weekend’s “Final Four” (another trademarked term) and Championship games are held at a final site (this year, St. Louis).
I’ve edited the thread title to make it more indicative of the thread content. Please note: Forum Rules
To further expand, “March Madness” applies to the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tournaments; Divisions II and III don’t get to use it.
Saying that the NCAA tournament is “generally considered to be the more prestigious” is being generous to the NIT (or for those who like redundancy, the NIT Tournament – I hear that regularly). Nowadays, the NIT is essentially made up of the schools who don’t make it to the NCAA Tournament.
The NIT is indeed considered the “second cut” for teams that didn’t make it into the NCAA championship. But still, it’s no small potatoes to win the NIT.
I believe March Madness has become a ubiquitous term for the end of the season basketball playoffs, at all levels, throughout the US.
More on March Madness from Answers.com: http://www.answers.com/march%20madness
It’s “Madness” because of it’s sheer unpredictability. I heard that on ESPN.com, where they had their “bracket buster” competition, that there were 2.8 million brackets filled out, and after the 2nd round of the tournament, there were ZERO that were 100% correct.
It’s certainly used ubiquitously, but the NCAA (and IHSA) would like to put a stop to that since it’s their trademarked term.
I know squat about round-ball but I’ll interject a comment about the origin of the term, anyway. (Is it really used exclusively in reference to basketball these days? It wasn’t always so.)
Folks used to say “as mad as a March hare,” because hares’ mating season is coincident with March, and they display some conspicuously manic behaviour during that month.
Because of that associaton, “March Madness” has often been used to describe organized energetic activity during that month, even if it hasn’t got anything to do with mating directly.
“March Madness” is trademarked? Wow, well you certainly do learn something new everyday here on the SDMB.
March Madness trademark and history:
See here for more information.
D’oh!
Same link even!
I haven’t done the research, but FWIW (and that is not much without said research) I think the NCAA’s trademark claim is weak because end of season basketball tournaments at all levels of play have been informally referred to as March Madness for a long time. That is, the use of the term by others predates the NCAA’s trademark.
And just to pick a very slight nit from Garfield226’s post above, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has 65 teams, not 63. Teams 64 and 65 (this year Oakland and Alabama A&M) play each other in the first game with the winner getting the right and/or privilege of playing a no. 1 seed in it’s first game.
And my hat’s off to those that did the research!
That’s what I said (only not so detailed), though I guess it could be confusing.
I understood you.
But, then I’m a lifetime Bas-ket-Ball fan, so I already knew where you were going.