Here Comes the Madness
March Madness is living up to the hype. Each year, millions of Americans carefully craft their tournament brackets, and each year most are ripped to shreds by the first day. This year is no different.
The tournament has found a bona fide Cinderella in 15 seed St. Peter’s. Hailing from New Jersey, the small school of just over 2,000 has a modest athletic budget but nonetheless took down blue blooded Kentucky in the first round. Tonight, the Peacocks will look to become the first 15 seed to make the Elite Eight when they go up against 3 seed Purdue.
Other shockers include the twin upsets of number 1’s Arizona to Houston and Gonzaga to Arkansas. After dominant regular seasons, many thought that the two teams would take the tournament in similar fashion. After both failed to make it to the Elite Eight, however, there is only one number 1 seed – Kansas – left standing.
And the madness has certainly taken a toll on fans’ brackets. There are no perfect brackets in either the men’s or women’s tournaments, with the last perfect men’s bracket being busted on only the tournament’s second day.
So far, the top viewed games have brought in more than 10 million viewers each, according to Sports Illustrated. The tournament championship will be played on April 4th, with last year’s game drawing more than 17 million viewers per CNBC.