March Madness, the annual US college basketball tournament that was wiped out last year by Covid-19, returns with a challenge unlike any it has faced after the bracket was revealed Sunday.
The 68-team event, usually spread across the nation, will be played entirely at Indianapolis, with safety protocols in place to protect teams as they complete games from Thursday to April 5 in the basketball-mad state of Indiana.
The billion-dollar spectacle is a US television sports staple, where future NBA stars are showcased and predicting outcomes has become an American tradition.
“This is a great time of year where we get to see the adulation, victories and everything that goes on with college basketball,” said Mitch Barnhart, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball committee chair.
“What we’re seeing is this thing our country loves. We forget what these coaches and athletes missed last year. They didn’t get a chance to celebrate.”