March Madness is a popular term for season-ending basketball tournaments played in March (Brent Musburger is generally regarded as the individual who first used that phrase in conjunction with the college tournament, using it during CBS Sports' coverage of the tourney back in 1982 - see below), especially those conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and various state high school associations. The phrase was not associated with the college tournament in 1939, when an Illinois official wrote "A little March Madness. March Madness is also a registered trademark, held jointly by the NCAA and the Illinois High School Association. The trademark has sparked a pair of high-profile courtroom battles in recent years.
March Madness refers to the frenzy these tournaments ignite among sports fans and, at least at the college level, sports gamblers. As it applies to college basketball, the term originally referred to the conference basketball tournaments, which occur in March just before the NCAANCAA tournament itself (the first weekend of which involves some 49 games, and which actually runs into early April). The term is now used in reference to both the men's and women's tournaments. The Big Dance also refers exclusively to the NCAA Tournaments to distinguish them from the conference tournaments and the NIT.
As a tournament ritual, the winning team cuts down the net at the end of the regional championship game (and the national championship game). Each player cuts a single strand off of the net for themselves, commemorating their victory, with the head coach cutting the last strand and claiming the net itself. Furthermore, the regional champs (starting in 2007) receive a bronze plated NCAA Regional Championship trophy (previously given to only the Final Four teams that did not make the championship game), and the National Champions also receive a gold plated NCAA National Championship trophy along with a more elaborate marble/crystal trophy sponsored by Siemens. The loser of the championship game receives a silver plated National Runner-Up trophy for second place.
NCAA March Madness Series : The NCAA March Madness series is the main NCAA basketball series published by EA Sports, only on the two next-gen consoles (PS2 and Xbox) as of 2004.
Like other games based on NCAA sports, it cannot feature the players' names (as that is against NCAA policy/rules). Therefore, only the players' numbers are used (although many of their last names are featured within the in game commentary, like the NBA Live series) but the player can give them names. NCAA March Madness 07 was released on January 16, 2007. As with 2006, the commentators are Brad Nessler at play-by-play, and Dick Vitale as color commentator.
A March To Madness : A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference is a book written by John Feinstein. It was written about the 1996-97 Atlantic Coast Conference basketball season, chronicling each ACC school's team's season, from the first practice, to the Big Dance. It includes, among other things, Dean Smith's final season at the University of North Carolina, and his team's Final Four run of that year.
Mega March Madness : Mega March Madness is a pay-per-view package covering games in the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. It has been exclusive to DirecTV since 2002 and supplements the coverage from CBS Sports.
MMM subscribers can watch the tournament games not chosen for local broadcast on the CBS affiliate serving their area. The Mega March Madness Mix is the ability to watch 3 games at once all on the same screen. Game coverage is identical to that on the local stations, except that DirecTV promos replace local commercial breaks, there are no cut-ins for studio analysis of the other games in progress at about 12 minutes remaining in each half, and game coverage is not interrupted if another more compelling game is going on at the same time. In other words, this is a "constant feed."
NCAA Men`s Division I Basketball Championship : The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams in the United States. Colloquially known as March Madness (as the tournament takes place mainly during the month of March) or the Big Dance (as opposed to the now smaller and less prestigious NIT), the tournament takes place over 3 weeks at sites across the United States, and the national semifinals (the Final Four) have become one of the nation's most prominent sporting events.
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