RILEY RAINS / SPORTS EDITOR

On Monday, April 7, the three-week-long men’s March Madness tournament came to a close with the University of Florida taking home the trophy. One of the elements that makes the collegiate basketball tournament unique is the brackets that fans make when betting on the tournament winners. The tournament starts off with 64 Division 1 teams from the four regions of the nation: South, West, East and Midwest. Teams in each respective division play each other until there are four final teams. 

This year’s final four were all No. 1 seeds, including the University of   Florida, the University of Houston, Duke University and Auburn University. This is the first time this has happened since 2008 and only the second time in history. This historical lineup was something that Ethan Petrie, a USD junior, found engaging. 

“I think it was a solid tournament,” Petrie said. “All No. 1 seeds in the final four is definitely a sign of NIL having an effect on the sport, but I don’t think it made any of the basketball less entertaining.”

The NIL acronym stands for Name, Image and Likeness. It is a recent initiative that refers to the rights of college athletes to control and profit from their name, image and likeness. In other words, student-athletes can have a prominent social media presence, sell merchandise, sign endorsements and make appearances for businesses. NIL allows for all Division 1 students to profit, including USD student-athletes. The policy went into full effect in July 2021, and has since changed the face of collegiate sports. Players are motivated to attend highly ranked schools to not only compete at the top level, but also to potentially profit off of the schools name in relation to theirs. This is the effect Petrie is referring to: top-tier programs maintaining their prestige as student-athletes are drawn to the financial and skill-level benefits that they provide. 

The final four teams contain some of the most top ranked athletes in the nation — athletes like Walter Clayton Jr., L.J. Cryer, Cooper Flagg and Isaiah Evan’s, who profit from NIL. These athletes played in the final four games just two days before the National Championship.

From left to right, Joseph Tugler, J’Wan Roberts, Milos Uzan, and Emanuel Sharp during the National championship. Photo courtesy of @houstoncougars/Instagram

For these games the Florida Gators beat the Auburn Tigers 79 – 73, and the Houston Cougars beat the Duke Blue Devils in a nailbiter with a final score of 70 – 67. According to the NCAA tracker, where athletes can keep up with games on NCAA.com, Duke had a 92% chance of winning up until the last 1:26 seconds when Houston started knocking down those odds. The Cougars went on a 9 – 0 run in the last 33 seconds of the game, securing a victory for Houston. Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson spoke to ESPN about Houston’s tenacity. 

“No one ever loses at anything, as long as you don’t quit,” Sampson explained. “All I can say is, don’t sleep on Houston. Don’t sleep on Houston.”

After another exciting game, the Gators punched their ticket to the National Championship. Walter Clayton Jr., a senior guard at Florida, helped lead the Gators to victory. According to ESPN Stats, Clayton is the first player with 30-point games in both the semifinals and the Elite Eight since Larry Bird for Indiana State in 1979. Florida’s coach, Todd Golden, reflected on Clayton’s vitality.

“I’m just used to seeing him put the ball in the basket, I guess,” Golden said. “But he’s done what he’s done all year for us. In big moments, stepped up, hit huge shots, settled our team down and made winning plays when we needed it the most.” 

Both teams put on a show for the National Championship game. The Cougars led for the majority of the game, but Florida gained momentum and crept up in the second half. Houston failed to get a shot off with their final possession, with Emanuel Sharp literally  dropping the ball and letting the clock run out. 

Houston has now appeared in seven Final Four games and three National Championship games, however, they have yet to win March Madness.

In light of the tournament coming to a close, many USD students are reflecting on the success of their brackets — a March Madness tradition. Filling out brackets begins on Selection Sunday, which occurred on March 16. This is the day where the NCAA reveals the full tournament bracket list, including all the teams and seeds. People from all over the country print out brackets and fill them out alongside family members, friends and even on betting websites. Lexie Langberg, a USD sophomore, had high stakes on her bracket this season. 

“My boyfriend started a huge  group  for this year’s March Madness,” Langberg said. “This bracket actually has some money at stake, so I’m taking it more seriously this time.”

Despite this, Langberg admitted that she had limited expertise in filling out the bracket. 

“I didn’t really know what I was doing to be honest,” Langberg said. “I kind of just got advice and ran with it.”

USD first-year Rebecca Demonteverde explained she had similar knowledge, but still managed to do quite well. 

“Honestly, I did pretty good,” Demonteverde said. “So far, I’ve only gotten nine wrong, which I’ve been told is insane. I’m in the top .01% or something like that, kind of crazy. I just chose the schools off of vibes.”

The chances of getting a perfect NCAA bracket are pretty astonishing, which is part of the reason why bracket making is fun for students. According to NCAA.com, there is a one in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 chance of creating a perfect bracket if teams are picked at random. For context, that is about one billion billions. That number is whittled down to 120.2 billion if picks are made based on basketball knowledge and statistics. Still, the chances of making a perfect bracket are quite slim. It is so small, in fact, that Warren Buffet has offered to pay one million dollars to anyone who creates a perfect bracket. 

The numeric  odds didn’t encourage USD first-year Maeve Volmer when her team lost, however. 

“I think it was rigged personally,” Vollmer exclaimed. “I was devastated when Ole Miss got knocked out.” 

The not-so-March Madness tournament ended April 7, with Florida defeating Houston in a dramatic matter. With all No. 1 seeds reaching the Final Four for the first time since 2008 and standout performances from NIL-backed athletes, this year’s tournament highlighted both the evolution and excitement of men’s college basketball. From buzzer-beaters to bracket busters, fans across the nation were once again reminded why March Madness lives up to its name.

Florida center Micah Handlogten celebrating after the Gator’s win. Photo courtesy of @gatorsmbk/Instagram