March is one of the most anticipated months for the basketball world because of one of the most watched and followed tournaments of the year. March Madness is a collegiate level basketball tournament that features the top 64 teams who battle it out to find the best college basketball team in the nation. For some basketball lovers, this is their favorite month of the year. Constant entertaining, competitive, high level basketball for a whole month. 

“I love being able to watch back to back games and seeing small schools beat the big schools, ” said government teacher Mr. Ky Dietz. “The first round of 64 is my favorite just because of all of the upsets that can happen and also seeing the top seeds dominate the other teams as they should.” 

“My favorite thing about March Madness is seeing the cinderella stories,” said economics teacher Mr. Jorge Cabral Pasillas. “I remember about a few years ago St Peter’s made a crazy run in the tournament and being able to watch and witness that.”

He was referring to when St Peter’s University reached the Elite 8 in 2022, being the only 15 seed to ever make it that far. 

With the final 4 set, the only schools left are 3 seeds or higher. One of the issues with this is the recent addition of NIL in 2021. The big schools are able to pay the better players because they have more money than the smaller schools. This means that top schools like Duke and Michigan will continue to be a top seed in the tournament because of the money they can give to their players. As NIL progressively continues to grow, the more dominant the big schools will be, and the less upsets will happen in the Round of 64.