68 Teams in NCAA Tournament Announced

 It’s here. It’s finally here! March Madness is upon us. The 68-team field participating in the NCAA Tournament has been announced on a “Selection Sunday” live show.

The selection process is not simple nor cut-and-dry. The selection committee used a quadrant system to determine which teams would get invited to participate. And apparently, “quality wins” made a big impact in the selection process this year.

Schools like Oklahoma, which did not do well late in the regular season got in, and this raised more than a few eyebrows. Then again, we get at least a few of these every season. The same thing goes for Syracuse and Nevada, which were somewhat questionable picks as selections.

These teams were, at least not in a stand-out way, more impressive than say, USC, UCLA or St. Mary’s.

Here are the Brackets and first-round matchups:

South

UVA vs. UMBC

CREI vs. KSU

UK vs. DAV

ARIZ vs. BUFF

MIA vs. L-IL

TENN vs. WRST

NEV vs. TEX

CIN vs. GAST

West

XAV vs. NCCU/TXSO

MIZ vs. FSU

OSU vs. SDST

GONZ vs. UNCG

HOU vs. SDSU

MICH vs. MONT

TAMU vs. PROV

UNC vs. LIP

East

VILL vs. LIU/RAD

VT vs. ALA

WVU vs. MURR

WICH vs. MRSH

FLA vs. SBON/UCLA

TTU vs. SFA

ARK vs. BUT

PUR vs. CSF

Midwest

KU vs. PENN

HALL vs. NCST

CLEM vs. NMSU

AUB vs. COFC

TCU vs. ASU/SYR

MSU vs. BUCK

URI vs. OKLA

DUKE vs. IONA

The first round of the tournament will begin on March 15-16. Get ready to make your predictions, fill out your brackets, and don’t forget to sprinkle in a few upsets here and there.

So far, the heavy favorites to win it all this year are Villanova, Virginia, and Duke. Who ya got?