March has come and gone once again, and with it the one time of the year that a majority of the American population cares about collegiate basketball.
The NCAA Tournament, known as March Madness to most, has concluded with Michigan State claiming its second ever team title in the men’s tournament in a close national championship game over the University of Connecticut (UConn). In the women’s tournament, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) took home its first ever team title.
Both Michigan and UCLA matched up against storied programs in their respective title games. UConn won back to back championships in 2023 and 2024 and lost to the eventual national champions in 2025, the University of Florida. South Carolina’s womens team is among the most successful programs in the history of women’s basketball with titles in 2022 and 2024; they were the national runner-ups in the 2025 season.
The two Big 10 programs finding this level of success follows a trend of success in the Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) Era of college sports. In total, nine Big 10 teams made the men’s tournament and 12 made the women’s tournament.
This year’s edition of March Madness featured plenty of what draws the casual fans in—upsets—although they were fewer than the 2025 tournament.
The East regional was fairly straightforward with nine seed Texas Christian University (TCU) beating eight seed Ohio State by two in the first game of the tournament. The only other upsets this region featured was #5 St. John’s over #4 Kansas in the second round and #2 UConn defeating #1 Duke in the Elite 8.
The Midwest region was also more straight forward; however, #6 Tennessee made a run all the way to the Elite 8, beating #3 Virginia and #2 Iowa State before falling to the eventual National Champion #1 Michigan.
In the West region, #12 High Point defeated #5 Wisconsin by one and #11 Texas defeated #6 Brigham Young University (BYU) and #3 Gonzaga before losing to #2 Purdue by two. #1 Arizona would take the Regional final beating Purdue by 15.
The South regional saw another big first round upset when #11 VCU took down #6 North Carolina in overtime. The South region was also home to the best underdog run of the entire tournament. #9 Iowa took down #8 Clemson on the second day of the tournament. Two days later they matched up against #1 Florida and held them off, barely winning 73-72. In the Sweet 16, they defeated Big 10 rival #4 Nebraska before losing to another Big 10 conference foe #3 Illinois in the Elite 8.
The women’s tournament, as is common, saw fewer upsets—only three occurred during the first round of games. However, some highlights include #6 Notre Dame’s run to the Elite 8 and #10 Virginia reaching the Sweet 16.
This could very well be the final year of the 68-team tournament. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported that as early as 2027, the NCAA could be moving to a 76 team format with 12 games happening before the first round ,replacing the current first four model. There has been no official announcement of expansion; however, Dellenger's sources seem quite confident that “it will happen.”