In a continent where long, drawn-out playoff series are the norm, March Madness is a bit of an anomaly in the US sporting calendar.
It sees 68 college basketball teams fight for the NCAA Men's Division I trophy.
To find out more about it, we spoke to the assistant editor of Slam magazine, Abe Schwadron.
"A certain chunk of those 68 teams invited to the tournament are automatic by winning their conference during the regular season or winning the conference tournament at the end of the season. So if you're a small school in a small conference, basically your only chance is to win the conference tournament at the end of the regular season," explained Schwadron, who added that a selection committee pick the remaining teams.
"People like to argue about which teams got snubbed and which team was ranked too high or too low. For instance one of the teams that was left out was SMU coached by former NBA head coach Larry Brown."
Schwadron discussed what makes March Madness the "unique" competition that it is and why even the likes of Barack Obama weigh in with their picks for the tournament.
