March Madness has gone from the modest beginnings of a championship game being played from an eight-team tournament in Evanston Illinois in 1939, to the nation-stopping show that gives unpaid teenagers the national stage for two weeks at the end of winter

College basketball itself is an important part of the history of March Madness. The first college basketball game took place in Madison Square Gardens where Pittsburgh University and Fordham University played. This first game was televised and the result was that college basketball became almost instantly popular. Both men's and women's teams were popular during this time period. Further, throughout the history of March Madness, there have been many storied teams, for example, the men's UCLA team won ten national titles between 1963-1975. More recently, teams like Duke have become synonymous with March Madness. Have you been studying up on your March Madness team and player statistics

College Basketball Divisions These 1,006 schools are divided into three categories and must follow rules specific to their division. Here are some of the factors that the NCAA uses to delineate between the three divisions. Division I - These schools must sponsor at least seven sports each for men and women, or six for men and eight for women, with two team sports for each gender. Men's and women's basketball teams must play all but two of their games against Division I teams, and men must play a third of their contests in their designated home arena. Schools have a minimum and maximum number of scholarships they can award Division II - These schools must sponsor at least four sports each for men and women, with two team sports for each gender. Men and women's basketball teams must play at least half of their games against Division I or Division II schools. There are no minimum home game requirements for this division. Division III - These schools must sponsor at least five sports each for men and women, with two team sports for each gender. Unlike Divisions I and II, Division III schools do not offer athletic scholarships. One of the NCAA's duties is to organize the annual basketball tournament for men's and women's college basketball of each division. Each tournament is based on a single-elimination format. Since the Division I tournament is the most prominent, and the format for all of the tournaments is the same, the rest of this article focuses on the Division I tournament. In the next section, you will learn more about the tournament format.

The phrase was confined to Illinois high-school ball until 1982, when CBS broadcaster (and ex-Chicago Daily News sportswriter) Brent Musburger used it during his network's NCAA tournament coverage. The IHSA, meanwhile, applied to trademark "March Madness" in 1989. The NCAA and IHSA clashed in 1996, when the IHSA sued to stop GTE, an NCAA corporate partner, from distributing a CD-ROM game bearing the March Madness title. The NCAA contended that it had a common-law trademark on the phrase and was thus allowed to license it at will. The 7th Circuit Court sided with the NCAA, but its ruling was vague enough to open the door for future litigation.