From 68 to 16: March Madness 2017 First Weekend Primer

Get ready for March Madness with the Detroit Jock City NCAA Tournament First Weekend Primer!

With the reveal of the brackets on Sunday, the field is set for the 2017 NCAA Tournament. 68 teams have qualified—whether by winning their conference tournament or by the benevolence of the committee—for the Big Dance, and over the next two weekends that field of 68 will be whittled down to a final four who will square off for the title in Phoenix in April.

But it’s not April yet. It’s March. And 64 teams will need to be eliminated before we get to four. 52 of those teams’ seasons will end during one tumultuous opening week, beginning with the First Four on Tuesday and Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.

The bracket includes 16 pods, each of which features four or five teams, only one of whom will survive the next several days and reach the second weekend. Some of these teams are making their first-ever appearance in the tournament and are just thrilled to be here, while others are seasoned March veterans who have their sights set on April.

How do you pick your brackets? RPI? Records? Best mascot? Colors? Hometown? It’s all here. Every game, every team, every matchup broken down and analyzed to get you ready for the madness. Huge thanks to ESPN, where I got a lot of these stats and helpful information, and also to FiveThirtyEight for their March Madness Predictions. Don’t forget to join our ESPN Tournament Challenge group!

With the annual parade of buzzer-beaters and Cinderellas just about ready to tip off, let us have a look at each pod of the bracket and get ready for the best weekend in sports.