March Madness is Finally Here 🏀
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Season 2: Episode 83 Description
In today's episode: 🏀 The biggest college basketball tournament of the year is back and here to tell us all about March Madness is Ten News Sports Correspondent Kenny Curtis. ⛹️♀️ Correspondent LizaBanks Campagna is coming all the way from half-court with the inside scoop on what happened during last year's tournament. ✔️ Fun Fact Check: are there two March Madnesses? And, test your college basketball knowledge on today's Trivia on the Ten. ✅
Sources
25 Fun Facts About March Madness - TheBestSchools.org
March Madness Stats & Fun Facts (wallethub.com)
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TRANSCRIPT:
Bethany Van Delft 0:02
Hey, Ten'ers. Guess what? It's March!
Ryan Willard 0:06
Let the madness begin.
Bethany Van Delft 0:09
Ryan, please put the glitter away.
Ryan Willard 0:12
But, it's March Madness.
Bethany Van Delft 0:14
I know, but we do not throw glitter in the studio. Remember?
Ryan Willard 0:19
Okay, fine.
Bethany Van Delft 0:22
I'm Bethany Van Delft and it's March Madness, the baby. Yes, Ryan. It's March Madness, but it's also March 10th. And this is the Ten News.
Sound Bit 0:35
10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 0:43
All right, I'm hype, you're hype, Ryan is clearly hype and so is the whole Ten News team. Because the biggest college basketball tournament of the year is back. Here to tell you more about it is Ten News correspondent Kenny Curtis.
Kenny Curtis 1:03
Yes, March Madness, it's one of the most popular sporting events of the year. It features a single-elimination tournament, where 68 NCAA division one basketball teams all compete for the national title. And while the men's tournament tends to get more media attention, the women's tournament is just as exciting and competitive. This year. The men's tournament starts on March 15. And the women's tournament actually starts the next day on March 16. And to become national champions, a team has to advance through six rounds without losing a single game, including the championship matchup. That's incredible. But how exactly do these teams get selected to play in the tournament in the first place? Well, that's a bit complicated. A lot of grownups really don't understand it, even the ones who watch it every year. The easiest way to get in the tournament is through an automatic bid. College sports are divided into groups of school teams called conferences, the teams that win their conference championship, automatically secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament, regardless of their season record. That's how the first 32 teams get it. But what about the other 36 teams? Well, they're chosen by the NCAA selection committee through a complex ranking system. Basically, they look at a lot of different statistics like record and strength of schedule, and they try to figure out how good a team actually is. Compared to all of the other teams in the country. It's the committee's job to make sure that every team is ranked fairly, and they ultimately decide who gets invited to play in the tournament. Once all 68 teams are selected, the committee then has to seed each team. Now a seed is just a basketball term for a ranking. Each team is given a seed between one and 16, the better teams get the lower seed numbers. Once the teams are ranked and seated, the committee places them in brackets. Brackets are basically just game schedules that look like flowcharts or diagrams. They show who plays who and when. And they are divided up into four regions, East, West, South, and Midwest. I don't know why there isn't a north there just isn't okay, there are four regions, so there can only be four teams assigned to each seat you with me? For number one seeds for number two seeds all the way down to four number 16 seeds, and each region features games or matchups between one set of the one through 16 You're with me. Okay, moving on. To keep things fair, the committee tries to balance each region equally in terms of competition. They also want to avoid having conference teams play each other early in the tournament. So the selection committee does a lot of mixing and matching to try to create the fairest possible tournament. And usually, they do a pretty good job because every year, it's practically impossible to predict which teams will win in the tournament. That's what makes this event so interesting. Any team really can beat any other team on any given day, regardless of seeding. A lot of people spend a lot of time and energy trying to predict which four teams will make it to the very end. That's called the Final Four. It's almost like a sport of its own. In fact, just a few years ago, a number 16 seed UMBC beat a number one seed UVA for the first time in history. Way to go. And no one has ever picked a perfect bracket since the tournament began back in 1939. That's crazy. But then again, they don't call it March Madness for anything.
Bethany Van Delft 4:44
Dude, you're so right. Just the bracketology alone is madness. Thanks for breaking it down, Kenny. Now that you know more about the actual tournament, we would like to dive into a controversy that happened last year and see if it's changed. Here to give you the lowdown is Ten News correspondent LizaBanks Campagna.
LizaBanks Campagna 5:16
March Madness is finally upon us. And this year basketball fans everywhere are watching closely not just to see if their favorite teams make a Cinderella run, but also to see how the NCAA handles the women's tournament. That's because last year in 2021, the biggest story coming out of the women's tournament was not about anything happening on the court, but rather the gigantic disparities in how the women's teams were getting treated versus the men's team. What does that mean? The 2021 March Madness tournament looks different than in past years. Because the men's and women's tournaments took place in a bubble due to the pandemic. All teams were isolated from the outside world. Well, they didn't hotels where they ate meals practiced and worked out when they weren't playing games in nearby areas. The men's tournament was held in Indianapolis, Indiana and the women's tournament was held in San Antonio, Texas. As soon as the tournament began, female basketball players began posting about how their facilities were not even close to what the men had access to. Especially the weight room seriously. The women's tournament had a gym that had a single piece of equipment and a couple of yoga mats. Whereas the men had a fully equipped weight room with everything you need to get a good workout in. Social media played a really big role in pointing out the discrepancies between the two tournaments.
Sound Bit 6:26
I got some to show y'all. This is our weight room. Let me show you all the men's weight room.
LizaBanks Campagna 6:30
You might remember Sedona Prince, a foreword from Oregon University who became the face of calling out the NCAA and gained over a million followers on Tiktok. From her videos about her experience at the tournament. The NCAA tried to correct its massive mistake, but the damage was done. If you aren't upset about this problem, then you're a part of it. The Stanford Cardinals ended up winning the 2021 National Championship, overcoming major obstacles thrown their way over the course of the season. Here's a fun fact about the reigning champions. They never once got to play a game at home last year because of the restrictions in Santa Clara County, where Stanford University is despite a road game-heavy season, they were still able to come together as a team and become national champions. Pretty amazing stuff. So, this year all eyes are on the NCAA and how they will handle and uplift these incredible female athletes and things are going to be different no matter what. Out of the top 10 most followed collegiate athletes on social media. Six of them are female athletes. Wow. Female collegiate athletes have been crushing it getting more media attention and letting big brand deals that both allow them to make money and put their sport on the map and gain coverage. Something the NCAA has been hugely lacking. There are many teams in contention for the championship this year, including Stanford again, South Carolina, and UConn. But I'm most excited to see the focus of this year to be on the action on the court. And I'm hoping that my favorite women's basketball team, the Princeton Tigers make a Cinderella run after winning the Ivy League Championship. Go Tigers.
Bethany Van Delft 8:05
I'm so excited for the women's tournament this year, and especially interested to see how the NCAA follows through for its female athletes. Thank you, LizaBanks. Hey, Tessa, do you know where the term March Madness even comes from?
Tessa Flannery 8:23
Actually, Bethany, I do know where March Madness came from. in 1982. A sportscaster named Brent Musburger said it while covering the NCAA college basketball tournament. Promotion of NCAA basketball, it might surprise you to learn that this led to a legal battle with the Illinois high school boys basketball championship, which had been using the phrase March Madness since 1939. And in a very unusual ruling, the court gave both the school and the NCAA rights to use the phrase.
Bethany Van Delft 8:55
What? Wow, well, thank you, Tessa, for that tidbit. Now that Ryan's settled down a bit, I think he's ready to give you the rundown.
Ryan Willard 9:04
What's up, Ten'ers? This is Ryan Willard and here is your rundown. An unidentified rocket booster might have crashed into the side of the moon. The bus-size space junk was expected to crash into the moon at about 7:25 Eastern Time last Friday traveling at a speed of 5700 miles per hour. Experts believe it is a rocket booster from a Chinese space mission in 2014, though China denies it and it remains unconfirmed. The next two Pokemon games are coming to Nintendo Switch this year. Pokemon presents it was announced that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet will be the next two games in the mainline Pokemon series and get this they will be the first fully open-world Pokemon games. I mean, I'm still hooked in Arceus so I am hyped. And last but certainly not least, A Greer cheese from Switzerland has been crowned the winner at the World Championship Cheese Contest in Wisconsin. This is the third win for Michael Spicer, the cheesemaker from Mountain Dairy Fritz in-house. His winning cheese called Cormin le Greer AOP earned a score of 98.423 out of 100. Now, this is your friendly reminder that if you are going to cut the cheese, leave the room and I'm talking specifically to my little sister Sydney. Disgusting. Back to you Bethany.
Bethany Van Delft 10:35
Something's coming our way.
Sound Bit 10:38
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 10:42
Trivia on the Ten. Do you ever wonder what it's like being a March Madness NCAA basketball star, playing for big crowds of cheering fans, and undoubtedly earning a nice chunk of change? Do you know how much each player gets paid by the NCAA? Is it a) $1 million, b) $100,000 or c $0? Did you guess it? The answer is c. NCAA players are college students and they don't get paid to play. That's unbelievable. Many of the players have scholarships so their college tuition and housing are covered. But that's it. Don't worry though, there is a growing movement to pay players. Starting in 2019, the state of California ruled that student-athletes can sign endorsement deals and image and likeness rights are right around the corner. What do you think? Should college athletes who earn lots of money for their colleges as well as TV networks get paid? Let us know. Head to thetennews.com/contact and we might have you join us on the show. Well, that means Today's game is over. But before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to the Ten News. Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is shooting half-court shots and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Ryan Willard, Tessa Flannery, Adam Barnard, and Logan Deyoung. Kenny Curtis and LizaBanks Campagna contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to the Ten News. There is so much glitter in my afro. It is never going to come out. Thank you, Ryan.
