College Basketball Tickets Tickets
About NCAA College Football
College Basketball combines the athleticism of the professional game with the excitement and pageantry we've come to expect from collegiate athletics.
Governed by the NCAA, college basketball (both men's and women's) is divided in three divisions, with Division I being the most prominent and popular. In the men's game there are 347 schools that comprise 32 conferences. Since fewer players are needed, smaller schools that are unable to excel in football can excel in basketball.
In the East, college basketball is dominated by the Big East Conference and schools like Syracuse, Connecticut, Villanova, and Pittsburgh.
In the South, the ACC and SEC dominate the basketball landscape and the top programs are North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi State.
The Midwest is home to the Big Ten and Big 12 where the perennial powerhouses are Kansas, Texas, Michigan State, Purdue, and Indiana.
In the West, the Pac-10 is main conference and the main teams are usually UCLA, Arizona, Washington State, Oregon, and Gonzaga.
UCLA has won the most National Championships with 11, including seven in a row in the late 1960's and early 1970's. That was when the team was coached by the Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden. Kentucky is second with seven titles. Indiana and North Carolina are next with five each.
Whereas the professional game is all about superstars and role players, college basketball is a coach's game that emphasis team play, fundamentals, and defense.
The two levels of basketball have several other dissimilarities. The NBA game is divided into four quarters of 12 minutes while the college game consists of two halves of 20 minutes. It takes six fouls for a disqualification in the NBA but just five in the college ranks. The shot clock is 24 seconds in the Association but 35 seconds in the NCAA. The collegiate three-point line is closer, the lane is smaller, and there's no illegal defense.
The college basketball season culminates in a championship-determining tournament featuring 65 teams. This field is comprised of automatic bids (conference winners) and at-large bids. The tournament spans three weekends ending in a national championship game that is usually played on a Monday. CBS broadcasts the tournament and has done so since 1982.
The tournament is one of the top sporting events in the United States. It generates so much excitement and incites so much passion that it's generally goes by its well earned nickname "March Madness."
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