March. A month that puts sports fans on the edge of their seats, and features some of the best basketball the world of sports has ever seen. If you aren’t familiar with college basketball, March is an exciting month to educate yourself.

March Madness is the National tournament that features 64 college teams that have all earned their spot in the tournament through a season of success, key wins, and overall consistency. These teams are then separated into four different regions and ranked through seedings. Each region contains 16 seeds, with the 16 seed being the least successful team in that region, and the number one seed being the top ranked team. In the first round the 1 seed plays the 16 seed, the 2 seed plays the 15 seed, and so forth. The term “March Madness” comes from the unpredictable nature of the tournament. Every single year, games that end in the underdog winning are referred to as “upsets.” The recurring theme of March Madness is that any team can win, because for some unknown reason, the playing fields are almost level in the tournament. The players feed off of the excitement of the tournament, or the big dance as some people call it. And every year, there is an unexpected princess attending the dance. The Cinderella.

In the Madness, Cinderella is a term given to a lower seed that is making a big run in the tournament. Despite playing some of the Nation’s top teams throughout the tournament, the Cinderella continues to shock the world. The momentum and hype that surrounds upsets in the tournament powers the Cinderella through the many rounds of the dance and leaves the Goliaths of the tournament running scared. The most recent David vs. Goliath game in the big dance was when the powerhouse of college basketball, Duke University, faced the Butler Bulldogs. This game was pure proof that the Madness of March doesn’t end until the final buzzer of the National Championship Game rings throughout the arena. Down by 2, with three seconds left in the game, Butler’s Gordon Hayward launched a desperation shot from half court to try to strike down the number one team in the Nation, but was disappointed when the ball clanged off of the rim, almost banking in at the buzzer.

Cinderella stories make the tournament crazy and unpredictable. This causes trouble for sports fans when they go to fill out their March Madness prediction brackets. A common competition among friends and co-workers, the brackets put a fun spin on the tournament, as fans binge watch every game of the tournament to see if their predictions pay off. Jonathan Mattingly, a professor of math at Duke University, calculated the odds of picking a perfect bracket. His calculations showed that the odds of picking every game correctly are about 1 in 2.4 trillion.

At Arlington, both teachers and students take on the bracket challenge, often joining into bets with friends as a friendly competition. Cameron Reece, a Junior at Arlington, fills out a bracket every year. “Its different from any other sporting event throughout the year” said Reece. “There are so many teams competing and its super unpredictable.” Mr. Klein, a teacher and Assistant Varsity Baseball coach at Arlington loves the month of March specifically for the Madness. “ It’s my favorite time of the year. People root for upsets, people have their favorite teams they hope will win. Its just great entertainment.” said Klein when asked about his thoughts on the tournament. Klein is picking the Kentucky Wildcats to take the Championship this year.

Just like the years before, March Madness 2015 will excite, shock, and entertain thousands across the nation. You won’t pick a perfect bracket, or get remotely close, but you can definitely try. So for all the average Joes missing out on the excitement of March, it’d be a good idea to check in on the tournament. Because the dance is described as accurately as it can be with a single word. Madness.