THE MOST exciting period of the college basketball calendar has arrived, with the NCAAM Tournament set to explode with March Madness kicking off on Wednesday morning.

Over the next couple of weeks, all eyes will be the United States’ college basketball competition, with a surplus of exciting action set to take place around the country.

For those who don’t know, March Madness is a term used for a tournament held by the NCAA, in a single-elimination format where 68 Division I sides will face off in a bracket format to try and win the national title.

32 of those teams automatically qualify as champions of their respective conferences (as the Memphis Tigers did on the weekend), while the remaining 36 are selected by a committee on a day commonly known as ‘Selection Sunday’.

The teams are separated into four conferences regions and a bracket is formed (see below).

The tournament will kick off on the 14th of March and run until the 3rd of April, on which date a national champion will be crowned.

Fans rarely know what to expect in March Madness, with a varying number of possibilities a chance to pan out. Although the powerhouse sides such as Houston and Alabama have given themselves the best opportunity to win it all, past years have seen underdogs put together unlikely runs on the big stage, so anything is possible.

The First Four stage will kick off proceedings on Wednesday morning AEDT, with the four lowest seeded qualified teams and the four lowest seeded selected teams set to face off. On Friday, the first round of the tournament officially begins with an immense amount of games to be taking place per day.

Below is the bracket of teams, with fans and experts alike set to make predictions of how it will all pan out.

Stay tuned to Rookie Me Central‘s basketball site for plenty of coverage over the next couple of weeks.