MAIN Sports Basketball NCAA Brackets - 2012 March Madness

Are you ready for some B-Ball?

2012 NCAA March Madness begins with the highly anticipated Selection Sunday, scheduled for Sunday, March 11 when college basketball team match-ups are officially announced at 6PM ET on CBS.

Then it's on to the national championship during a month-long battle of skill, determination, and dazzling performances by top competing college teams.

From the announcement of the initial 64 teams — to eliminations that determine the Sweet 16 to the Elite 8 — all the action ultimately leads to the Final Four games and the annual championship played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, LA on April 2.

2012 NCAA March Madness ticket information

Looking for a shot at tickets to the 2012 Final Four in New Orleans?

If you already submitted an application and won the NCAA's online ticket lottery (deadline: May 31, 2011), congratulations! You are good to GO.

Otherwise, expect to pay a lot more than face value for some of the hottest tickets of the year as resellers begin to offer Final Four tickets on sale sometime around October 2011. Prices traditionally start in the hundreds for the nosebleed seats - and well into the thousands for courtside.

Meanwhile, also watch for more reasonably priced tickets for the First Four, Second and Third Rounds, Sweet 16, and Elite 8 games to go on sale as the championship season heats up in March.

The best alternative to the excitement of a live game? Throw a March Madness party as you join millions of other couch potatoes nationwide gathered around the TeeVee machine.

2012 March Madness TV Schedule & Venues

As we reported last year, the NCAA reached a new television deal with CBS Sports and Turner Sports (TBS, TNT and truTV) for the rights to broadcast the NCAA Tournament games until 2024, marking the first nationwide telecast of all March Madness games ever.

Once again in 2012 the number of participating teams jumps from the traditional 64 to 68 — with four at-large teams and four automatic qualifiers playing in a "First Four" round to see who advances into the final 64-team bracket.

March Madness Trivia & Fun Facts

The phrase “March Madness” was coined by Henry V. Porter in 1939 to describe an Illinois high school basketball tourney. Brent Musburger first used it during NCAA coverage in 1982 causing a legal battle almost as insane as the playoffs.

But everyone finally worked things out and the madness was official. There isn't a good record of who first called the playoffs "The Big Dance", but it does describe the action.

The 6 schools who have the winningest history in NCAA Division I Men's basketball are:

• UCLA with 11 championships;
• Kentucky who won the March Madness games 7 times;
• Indiana with 5 Big Dance victories;
• North Carolina outlasted all the other teams 4 times, including their championship win in 2005, and
• Duke with 4 titles, the most recent in a nail biter over Butler in 2010.

Although past history is no guarantee in this Cinderella-laced NCAA tournament, number one seeds have won every time in the first round for the past 16 years and number two seeds have only lost three first round games... a 95% win average.

What makes the brackets exciting are the number 13 and 14 seeds who came out winners in the first round 20 times since 1992... a sweet 16% that leads to dreams of glory. Watch for them in your brackets. Also look for teams from smaller conferences or those who had a bad start to the season, but got their game on during the last weeks to pull off an invitation. A power player on a slump or injury roster who recovers can mean a lower seed for a solid team. Check out the Boston Sports Hub analysis for more stats all the way through the Final Four...

More about March Madness around the Web:

NCAA Men's Basketball - The official site for ticket information, the latest updates, scores, ranking and related pictures and feature stories, interviews and more.

NCAA Basketball - CBS Sportsline - The official network TV station with headline reports & predictions, opinion and news, plus the latest scores at a glance and key dates for major games.

Rivals.com Yahoo! NCAA Basketball - This site has all the stats, brackets, news and analysis with a few extras that may help with your bracket selections... or help you understand why your teams did - or didn't - come through for you. Experts, blogs and videos for in depth looks at the teams, coaches and players...

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship - Wikipedia's excellent overview of March Madness with tons of stats, facts and incredible depth of trivia answers.

CollegeHoops.net - NCAA Basketball Tournament - One-stop browsing for daily news & updates, odds & predictions, how to's on winning that office pool, plus tons more on March Madness history, stats & trivia.

also see -> 2010 Printable Men's Division I Bracket

2010 Viewable Men's Division I Bracket

also see -> Fantasy Basketball

NBA playoffs | NBA draft