The 2025-26 season has included some of the best scenes in college athletics: for the first time since 1894, a college football team, the Indiana Hoosiers, went 16-0. In an unexpected display, the Miami (OH) Redhawks have joined the club of the few college basketball teams to have a 30-0 season.
It is a long way to the top, though. The RedHawks still have to push past the Midwestern Athletic Conference (MAC) championship game. Beyond that, they have to get through the annual March Madness tournament.
The NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, otherwise known as March Madness, is college basketball’s sacred playoffs—where seasons go to die and where the overlooked get a second chance. The approximately three-week long tournament is made up of 64 teams, all fighting for a chance at the Waterford Crystal WCBA Coaches’ Trophy.
The tournament is beloved in many hearts due to its unforgiving, unpredictable nature, the chaos it creates and the stories it gives rise to. Just three seasons ago, in 2023, the UConn Huskies won their fifth championship in program history, unsurprising to many, who they faced in the title game; however, nobody expected. On Apr. 3, 2023, the UConn Huskies faced off against the San Diego State Aztecs.
Florida Atlantic University, otherwise known as FAU, and the Owls also made their way to the final four, despite many counting them out of the dance itself. In 2021, No. 13 Ohio took down the titan No. 4 Virginia Cavaliers. The same year, Abaleine Christian took down No. 3-seeded Texas, No. 15 Oral Roberts took down No. 2 Ohio State, and No. 12 Oregon State defeated the No. 5-ranked Tennessee Volunteers.
March Madness is all about the upset, and the upset it delivers. With all the upsets in recent years, there is bound to be at least one or two to wrap up a movie-sequence season. Selection Sunday, the day on which the bracket is set, occurred on March 15, and the battles that were fought were entertaining for many.
All eyes are on the Miami (OH) RedHawks on the men’s side and the UConn Huskies on the women’s side to see if they can keep their polished undefeated records intact, the RedHawks especially. Many believe that the RedHawks are ‘frauds’ and will fall in the first round, exposing their lack of a strong schedule in the MAC. All that is left for Miami of Ohio to do is to show why they are there in the first place, and prove why they are on the pathway to a national title.
These predictions are a large part of the college basketball community—and sports betting—many people across the United States try to correctly predict each matchup all the way to the national championship for the chance of a reward, whether it be bragging rights or a large sum of cash. However, it is a difficult task to do. In 2025, of all 24,400,000 brackets submitted through ESPN attempting to correctly predict who takes it all, through the first two rounds, zero perfect brackets remained. In 2024, all 22,000,000 brackets submitted were broken in the first two days. No one has ever submitted a perfect bracket during the routine-ESPN phenomena. The closest reported was in 2019, with 49 matchups correctly predicted, lasting into the Sweet 16.
Who will take it all, though? Only time will tell.