The Mascot Defines March Madness.

In collegiate sports there are five conferences that govern the men’s and women’s branches in the NCAA, sometimes your name of war weighs more than the team you represent.

We are at the start of the round of 16, better known as the Sweet Sixteen within the great tournament of the NCAA better known as “March Madness” and how it is well known only one team will win the 2023 season.

This year has been characterized by surprises within the women’s and men’s branches, leaving some Cinderella stories in force, Princeton Tigers, Florida Atlantic Owls. While in the ladies, Be Miss who defeated Stanford, Miami y Colorado They are still alive, although they are not one of these big surprises.

Therefore, if you are just coming across this topic of college sports and especially college basketball, we can start with the common denominator that is the conferences, this year 31 conferences were invited, of which SEC (Conferencia del Sureste), -Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Auburn y Mississippi State.. Big 10 (Big 10) -Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State, Northwestern, Penn State, and Purdue- had 8 invitees each, but the SEC has 3 remaining and 1 for the Big 10.

Big 12 (Big 12) with Baylor, Iowa St, Kansas (2022 Champions), Kansas St, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St and TCU (Texas Christian University), of its seven participants, one survives, the Kansas State Wildcats.

Big EAST (Big East) together with ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) got five teams respectively. Marquette, Xavier, UConn, Creighton, and Providence del Big EAST, keeping Connecticut Huskies, Creighton Bluejays and Xavier Musketeers. while the ACC entered: Virginia, Duke, Miami, NC State and Pittsburgh, surviving only the UM Hurricanes.

With four positions, they were Pac 12 (12 Pacific) and MWC (Western Mountain Conference). Of the Peaceful there are UCLA, USC, Arizona and Arizona State, surviving the California Bruins in Los Angeles. While in the MW, San Diego State, Boise State, Utah State and Nevada State. The SD State Aztecs still have participation.

With two participants was the WCC (West Coast Conference): Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga, being the Zags or Bulldogs who are still active. In the American (American Conference) Houston and Memphis, with the Cougars continuing in the big dance and also being #1 in the nation.

The rest of the conferences entered a guest, the representative of the IVY LeaguePrinceton and Florida Atlantic of the USA conferenceboth of which, as I mentioned, are in the quality of being the surprises of the tournament.

As data, the last team to reach the Elite Eight from IVY League were the Pennsylvania Quakers in 1979, defeating in the Sweet Sixteen to Syracuse 84 to 76 and in the Elite Eight to St. John’s 64 to 62, losing in the Final Four with Michigan St. 101 to 67, the Spartans would ultimately be the champions, and they had in their ranks a player named Erwin ‘Magic’ Johnson.

The weight of a pet in the Grand Ball

Now you may wonder, what does the name of the team have to do with success?

Well, very simple, there are characters that weigh more in the March madness. More than 900 universities have participated in collegiate sports and many of them have several nicknames that are very repeated; I will only take into account the current programs of the highest category, and in the first place are the Bulldogsthey have to 14 teams: Alabama A&M, Butler, Citadel, Drake, Fresno State, Garner-Webb, Georgia, Gonzaga, Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State, Samford, South Carolina State, University of North Carolina Asheville Bulldogs and Yale.

At number two, the Tigers (Tigres) con 13 representativos: Auburn, Clemson, LSU, Grambling State, Jackson State, Memphis, Missouri, Pacific, Princeton, Savannah State, Tennessee State, Texas Southern y Towson.

Eagles con 11: Boston College, American, Coppin State, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Washington, Florida Gulf Coast, Georgia Southern, Morehead State, Niagara, North Carolina Central y Winthrop.

With nine, the Wildcats: Arizona, Bethune-Cookman, Davidson, Kansas State, Kentucky, Northwestern, New Hampshire, Villanova, and Weber State. Also with nine are the Bears: Baylor, Brown, Central Arkansas, California, Maine Black, Mercer, Missouri State, Morgan State y Northern Colorado.

And in fifth place the Panthers with eight teams; Eastern Illinois, Florida International, Georgia State, High Point, Milwaukee, Northern Iowa, Pittsburgh and Prairie View A&M.

As we can see they all belong to the animal kingdom, so it would be very easy to choose a team represented in this category. However, many teams are from this sector and therefore it is better to section them.

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Humans also have their share; Aggies who are farmers, Tar Heels which refers to North Carolina, Spartans y Troyansamong other characters in the history of humanity.

For this reason, let us classify as follows; bears, birds, dogs, felines, science fiction or mythical characters, people or characters, weather or elements, and finally varied or miscellaneous.

Now comes the fun part of this, from 1985 when the Bracket It increased to 64 teams, changing in 2011 to 68 guests, 307 programs have participated, 94 of them have been people, 49 cats, 47 birds, 45 other animals, 30 dogs, 14 mystics, 12 bears, 9 climatic phenomena or elements of nature and 7 belong to miscellaneous.

The most recent winner was a bird, Jayhawks in Kansasthe best percentage of victories is from the mystics with 58.06% effectiveness, the maximum winner being the Duke Blue Devils with five titles.

The worst victory percentage is for the bears, who with 12 participants, have only been able to achieve a 46.84% win-loss rate. Although in direct confrontations with other categories, they dominate people as well as the elements and weather.

From that 1985 to date, people have achieved eight championships, divided between Tar Heels (4), Hoosiers (1), Runnin’ Rebels (1), Spartans (1) and Cavaliers (1). The cats follow with seven, Wilcats Arizona (1), Wildcats Villanova (3) and Wildcats Kentucky (3). So here the Tigers They don’t roar, much less other cats.

With five are the birds, the mythical and other animals; Jayhawks Kansas (3), Louisville Cardinals (2), Blue Devils Duke (5), Florida Gators (2), Michigan Wolverines (1), Maryland Terapins (1) y Arkansas Razorbacks (1).

The dogs with four; all from the Connecticut Huskies. so the Bulldogs and other canines have failed to bite their prey. with two the bone: UCLA Bruins (1) -clarifying that it is from 1985 to date because UCLA is the winningest program with 11 championships- and Baylor (1).

And in the various or miscellaneous: Syracuse Orangemen (1). Without a single championship in this period of time, teams that represent the weather and nature.