On Sunday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the schools competing in the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament, March Madness.
March Madness is a seven-round single-elimination tournament that eventually leads to the two schools playing for the NCAA title according to a NCAA webpage.
ESPN has schools listed in a 16-seed format with four schools in each.
There are currently 68 teams involved because four 16-seed schools and four 11-seeds have to play for a spot in the round of 64 bracket, according to the NCAA.
This part of the tournament is known as the First Four and is scheduled to be played between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the NCAA.
The two 11-seed games are the Texas Longhorns vs. Xavier Musketeers and the San Diego State Aztecs vs. the North Carolina Tar Heels according to the same source.
The NCAA also mentions the two 16-seed matchups featuring the Alabama State Hornets vs. the Saint Francis Red Flash and the American Eagles facing Mount ST. Mary’s Mountaineers.
While we have to wait on those games for the completed 64-round bracket, here are the teams that clinched a spot already by seed.
1st Seeds
The first seed teams that made it into the tournament include the Auburn, Duke Blue Devils, Houston Cougars and the University of Florida.
These seeds will play the sixteenth seeds as seen on the live bracket from the NCAA.
2nd Seeds
This seed includes the Michigan State, the University of Alabama , Tennessee Volunteers and the Saint John’s Red Storm.
Alabama ranked third in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) with Tennessee following right behind at fourth according to the conference webpage.
3rd Seeds
The third seeds consist of the Iowa State, the Wisconsin Badgers, the Kentucky Wildcats and the Texas Tech
Kentucky ranked sixth in the SEC according to the conference webpage. Iowa State and Texas Tech are both in the Big 12 Conference, with Texas Tech ranking second and Iowa State raking fifth according to Big 12 webpage
4th Seeds
In the fourth seed, we have Texas A&M, the Arizona Wildcats, Purdue who was the NCAA runner-up, according to last season’s bracket and the Maryland Terrapins.
5th Seeds
The fifth seed has the Michigan Wolverines and Oregon, and Clemson. The Memphis Tigers, who are coached by Orlando Magic legend Penny Hardaway are also featured, according to the team’s webpage.
6th Seeds
For the sixth-seed teams, the bracket includes Ole Miss, Brigham Young University, the University of Illinois Fighting Illini and the Missouri Tigers.
7th Seeds
The seventh-seed teams in the tournament include the Marquette Golden Eagles, the Saint Mary’s Gaels, UCLA and the Kansas Jayhawks.
8th Seeds
Louisville, Mississippi State Bulldogs, Gonzaga, and the defending champ University of Connecticut make up the eighth-seed teams.
9th Seeds
The ninth-seed teams in this March Madness tournament are the Creighton, Baylor, the University of Georgia and the Oklahoma Sooners.
10th Seeds
For the tenth seed, the New Mexico Lobos, Vanderbilt, Utah State and the Arkansas Razorbacks are in the bracket.
11th Seeds
The only two eleventh-seed schools to clinch a spot on the 64-team bracket are Virginia Commonwealth University and the Drake Bulldogs
12th Seeds
The March Madness twelfth-seed teams include the UC San Diego, the Liberty Flames, McNeese State Cowboys and the Colorado State.
13th Seeds
The schools in the thirteenth-seed are composed of Yale, the Akron Zips, the High Point Panthers and Grand Canyon University.
14th Seeds
The fourteenth-seed schools in this tournament comprise the Lipscomb Bisons, the University of Montana, Troy and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
15th Seeds
The fifteenth-seed teams that are competing in the tournament this year are Bryant, Robert Morris Colonials, Wofford Terriers and Omaha.
16th Seeds
The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) and the Norfolk State University are the only schools in the 16th seed group to currently have a spot on the 64 round bracket.
Following the first four games on Tuesday and Wednesday, the First Round of the tournament is scheduled to begin this Thursday at 9:15 a.m. with 16 games being played that day.
The scheduled games on Thursday are Creighton vs. Louisville, High Point vs. Purdue, Montana vs. Wisconsin and SIUE vs. Houston.
McNeese is set to match up against Clemson. VCU and BYU are scheduled to play each other along with Georgia and Gonzaga.
Wofford is matched against Tennessee while Arkansas is set to go against Kansas. Yale has its first game of the tournament against Texas A&M while Drake has a game against Missouri.
Utah State is scheduled to play UCLA while Omaha is up against St. John's. Auburn is set to play the winner between Alabama State and Saint Francis according to a live bracket from CBS Sports.
The remaining games on Thursday include matchups of UC San Diego vs. Michigan State and UNC Wilmington vs. Texas Tech.
