To some, March Madness is just another time of the year to spend time with your family and friends and watch college sports, but to many others, it is an intense time to bet on teams, create your brackets in hopes of showing them off to everyone you know and enjoy games that will have you on your toes the whole time.

The tradition was first started in 1939 ending in a head-to-head battle with Oregon and Ohio State with Oregon claiming the first National Collegiate Athletic Association(NCAA) Championship. Granted, the first tournament only had eight teams playing, but it led to the worldwide tradition most popularly known today as March Madness. As time went on, the league doubled to 16 teams competing and currently has 68 teams playing against each other in the span of a month.

Many take this opportunity to test how well they think they know their sports teams by betting on who will make it to the next round and developing brackets to track who they think will advance to the next round. Just like any other type of betting, it is stressful and intense to watch the teams you’ve picked struggle to claw their way through the tournament. 

Not only do individuals outside of the NCAA make life-changing decisions, but most players are riding on this time to help them stand out and flourish in their careers. Every point they score, the person they foul and the beat-the-buzzers they make help them advance to the next level in their basketball career and hopefully make it to the NBA. 

The champions of March Madness 2023 are the UConn Huskies, winning their fifth national championship in the past 24 years  over San Diego State’s Aztecs. 

Sofia Morant, a junior, added, “I feel like across the board in both men and women’s; the outcome was very unexpected and surprised many people. It was good to see some of the not-as-popular teams come out on top.”

Whether you watched to win your $4 million dollar bet or just to spend time with the people around you, March Madness was a great way to bring people together and share a love for college-level basketball.