On Sunday, the 68 teams that will compete in the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament — commonly known as March Madness — were selected and seeded.
The Sports & Recreation Department will hold its annual March Madness bracket competition. Students and faculty can enter and fill out brackets on ESPN here for free until March 16 at 10 a.m. MST. The first round of tournament games will start at 10:15 a.m. MST on March 16.
The password to enter the group is “Winter 2023.” To be eligible for prizes, the name of your bracket must be your BYU-Idaho e-mail.
Students and faculty can earn points by making correct predictions, and the people with the most points will earn prizes, including but not limited to NBA jerseys, basketballs and lunch at the crossroads.
According to Trent Shippen, a sports advisor at BYU-I, 32 different prizes were handed out last year and about the same can be expected this year.
Shippen also said that there will be March Madness watch parties in the Crossroads in the Manwaring Center. These watch parties get “pretty big” according to Megan Kerr, campus rec events coordinator.
“We usually have the Crossroads open and they’ll be watching up on the stage up there,” Shippen said. “A lot of people come in and watch the games during the day and night. It’s pretty full and everyone’s cheering.”
There will also be a bracket challenge for the BYU-I men’s and women’s competitive basketball tournaments taking place at the same time. These paper brackets can be picked up on Monday, March 13 at the Campus Recreation Department, the Student Activities and Involvement Center, the University Store, and the equipment room in the BYU-Idaho Center Courts and the John W. Hart Building.
Each person that completes a bracket and returns it to one of the aforementioned locations will receive a coupon for 25% off one item at the University Store.
BYU-I teams will be seeded based on how they did in the regular season. Find the up-to-date playoff brackets on the Campus Recreation team rankings website.
The BYU-I competitive basketball playoffs will be played on March 15, 17 and 18. The championship games will be on Friday, March 24 in the John W Hart Building. The women’s championship game will commence at 5:30 p.m., and the men’s championship game will begin at 7:30 p.m. The games will be a ticketed event. Each ticket will cost $3, and optional glow sticks will cost $2.
The game will have live instant replay, media timeouts, crowd competitions, giveaways, a dance cam, a kiss cam and fan involvement activities.
“We would love to fill the Hart Main gym and make it a memory for years to come,” Trent Shippen said.
Before the women’s championship game, there will be a kickoff party. The party will be from 5-7:15 p.m. Some of the activities include face painting, headbands, wheelchair basketball contests, challenges, a best-dressed BYU-I spirit contest and food from IBC companies.