March Madness has arrived.
The NCAA Selection Committee released the full bracket on Sunday. Games are scheduled to begin on March 18 and will run until the National Championship on April 7 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
This year’s NCAA Men’s March Madness bracket was dominated by the Southeastern Conference, which had an incredible 14 teams selected, setting a new record for the most teams ever selected from one conference, per NPR.
The SEC also features two of the four No. 1 seeds in the bracket. Auburn secured the top overall seed playing out of the South region, and Florida received the first seed in the West region.
Duke and Houston were the two other No. 1 seeds in the bracket, with the Blue Devils playing out of the East region and the Cougars playing out of the Midwest region.
The first game of March Madness is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:40 p.m. when St. Francis University will play Alabama State.
The matchup winner will then be slotted into the 16th seed and face No. 1 overall seed Auburn in the Round of 64.
The most controversial inclusion in this year’s tournament is the University of North Carolina (UNC), which finished with just 22-13 and an Atlantic Coast Conference record of 13-7.
Many have pointed to North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham as the chairperson of the NCAA Selection Committee, raising questions about the validity of the selection.
Selection committee vice chair Keith Gill responded to the controversy and assured those concerned that he “managed all the conversations” about North Carolina.
“Our policies require the AD of any school to recuse themselves and actually leave the room for those discussions. And they’re not allowed to participate in any vote as well,” he explained, per Yahoo Sports.
Gill added that there was a scenario in which North Carolina did not make the tournament, but a victory by Memphis to win the American Athletic Conference allowed the Tarheels to slide into the open spot.
A full bracket of the upcoming March Madness games is available here.