Today is a momentous day for college basketball fans but it as an even bigger deal for fans of dreams. Statheads like ESPN’s Joe Lunardi make a living each spring by telling us, in advance of the NCAA tournament, who’s in and who’s out and who’s on “the bubble.” But today, nearly every team with a uniform and a dream is IN. The NCAA basketball tournament known as March Madness is still a bit more than two weeks away but the tourney behind the tourney starts tonight.
With 68 teams destined to be in the field when the NCAA tournament selection committee announces which teams will play for the national championship, the NCAA tourney is the most wide open major sports tournament in the country. But by the time we reach Selection Sunday in 13 days, that field will have already been winnowed significantly.
As the sun came up on this last day of February 2022, 337 teams are still in the running to win the national championship and all but five of them control their own destiny. All they have to do is win games, about 10 of them in most cases, and they will be cutting down the nets in New Orleans on the night of April 4.