March Madness

Disambiguation: "March Madness comes from the phrase 'Mad as a March Hare'. In England, the phrase March Madness may refer to wasteful spending at the end of a budget year. The rest of this article covers the use of the term in reference to the NCAA basketball tournament tournements also known as the final four championship.

Related Topics:
Mad - March Hare - Budget year - NCAA basketball tournament - Final four

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March Madness is a popular colloquial term for the annual NCAA basketball tournament in the United States. The tournament takes place during March and April, and the term refers to the frenzy it ignites among the sports fans and gamblers.

Related Topics:
NCAA basketball tournament - United States - Sports - Gamblers

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The term is now used in reference to both the men's and women's tournaments.

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H.V. Porter, an official with the Illinois High School Association, coined the term in 1939 when writing about his state's high school basketball championships. In the 1980s the NCAA began to use the term to describe its championship tournament. Courts later decided that "March Madness" could not be exclusively protected by either organization as it had entered into "dual-use" to describe both championship events. Today, both the IHSA and NCAA license the term for their respective tournament.

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