March Madness for dummies: Explaining super regionals, units and more

Whether you’re a diehard fan, want to be one or you realized last year you just really like the NCAA tournament and came back for more, we’ve got you covered!

The brackets are out, the griping has begun and we’re here to catch you up on everything you need to know. Who’s in (JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers), who’s out (Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese), who’s hot (South Carolina), who’s not (Notre Dame) and what’s this about the women finally getting money like the men’s participants have for years?  

Grab your bracket and a sharpie and settle in. Here’s all you need to know about the NCAA women’s tournament to be an expert before the First Four kicks off Wednesday:

What is March Madness?

March Madness is the NCAA basketball championship, played by both the men and women. It’s a 68-team tournament, with 31 teams qualifying as conference champions and 37 that are selected by a committee. The format is one-and-done, meaning you win or you go home.

Oh, and not-so-fun fact? The women’s tournament was barred from using “March Madness” until the 2022 tournament. No good reason. Just plain old misogyny.

Who are the No. 1 seeds?

UCLA is the overall No. 1 seed because, duh. The Bruins spent most of the season atop both the USA TODAY and Associated Press polls, including this week. Their only two losses were to crosstown rival USC, and they avenged those by beating the Trojans to win the Big Ten tournament title.

Oh, they also routed South Carolina earlier in the season, negating the Gamecocks’ claim to the overall No. 1.

South Carolina, Texas and Southern California are the other three No. 1s.

Will all four No. 1s make the Final Four?

Highly unlikely.

There was a time when you could predict the Final Four before the season began and likely be right. But the caliber of play has improved so much that the women’s tournament is now ripe for the upsets that make the men’s tournament so enjoyable.

Remember Middle Tennessee State taking out sixth-seeded Louisville in the first round last year? Or seventh-seeded Iowa State upsetting second-seeded Stanford?

This year, keep your eyes on a pair of 12-seeds, Green Bay and Fairfield, along with 10-seed Harvard. And don’t be surprised if Duke and Ohio State blow up some brackets.

You’re welcome.

Why is the women’s tournament format different than the men’s?

First- and second-round games in the women’s tournament are played at campus venues, while this is the second year the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight are being played at two ‘super regional” sites. This year’s sites are in Spokane, Washington, and Birmingham, Alabama.  

This is in contrast to the individual, neutral venues the men use for every round. The thinking being that as the women’s tournament grew – it only began in 1982, remember, almost 60 years after the men’s tournament – it was better to play the early-round games at smaller venues where there was a built-in fan base.

It seems to have worked; attendance records were set for both the first- and second-rounds (292,456) and regional sites (103,587) last year.

Speaking of interest, will the women’s title game outdraw the men’s again this year?

Probably not.

Now, this is not a cause for panic or a sign that interest in the women’s game has plateaued. When the women’s championship game outdrew the men’s last year, 18.9 million to 14.82 million, it was fueled partly by Caitlin Clark and Iowa going up against Dawn Staley’s South Carolina team. But the men’s game was also broadcast on TBS, a cable station that not every household gets, while the women’s final was on ABC.

This year, the men’s final is back on CBS, which should generate higher ratings.

That’s not to say the women won’t do a big number. And if Watkins or Bueckers is in the final and playing Staley and South Carolina? It could be big big.

What are ‘units’ and what do they mean?

It means the women are finally getting paid.

For years, and I do mean years, men’s conferences got ‘units’ based on the number of their teams that made the tournament and how many games they played. The conferences then distributed the money from those units to their respective schools.

This isn’t pocket change, either. Last season, each men’s unit was worth about $2 million. That means the Big Ten, which got six teams into the tournament and had one, Purdue, reach the title game, got roughly $32 million.

The NCAA didn’t give the women units, claiming the tournament didn’t have a large enough unique revenue stream, like the men’s TV deal. But now that the NCAA’s deal with ESPN includes a specific valuation for the women’s tournament, $65 million per tournament, the NCAA earlier this year approved giving units to the women.

The fund is $15 million this year, or 25% of the TV contract. The money is paid out over time, just as the men’s units are.

‘It really gives the women a seat at the table,’ Atlantic-10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade, who was a member of the NCAA’s women’s basketball committee when it first requested units some 25 years ago, told USA TODAY Sports.

‘Obviously the dollars are drastically different (between the men’s and women’s) because the media contracts are so drastically different,’ McGlade said. ‘But you have to start somewhere.’

Who’s going to win it all?

Will South Carolina become the first team to repeat as champions since UConn won its fourth straight in 2016? Will UCLA finally win a women’s championship? Will Bueckers leave UConn with the only title she’s yet to win? Will JuJuMania sweep the nation?

If I knew the answers, I’d be in Las Vegas, not writing this. But what I do know is this year’s tournament is going to be entertaining, worth your time no matter what kind of fan you are.