America is carried to Ohio in a Swarm of Bees
The MIAMI (OH) Redhawks vs SMU Mustangs NCAA Tournament Game 2026 is Something that happened in Dayton, Ohio on March 18.
The same Wednesday that I filled out a March Madness bracket for the first time since I was born due to a confluence of curiosity & impulse flowing with suddenly increasing force in the direction of the question “when does March Madness start?”
The curiosity expands to pose the question “What is March Madness?”
It’s a single elimination basketball tournament with 68 teams which get selected out of 350+ teams.
So now I’ve got the premise. I can fill out a bracket. Just like everyone has always done, and I joyfully join the parade. I realize that the remaining 2 of the “first four” round games are happening that same night. I vote for Miami (OH) to win against SMU to then play against Tennessee in Philadelphia because….
I have been OBSESSED with Bloodbuzz Ohio.
It is my current personal anthem of victorious, efficacious ambivalence in a somewhat mundane but transitory season of life.
Bloodbuzz Ohio is a fantastic song by a band called The National.
Anyways, I’m really in a phase with it again so I voted for Ohio in this game out of whimsy off the dome.
The Miami (Ohio) Redhawks were undefeated in their regular season this past year
Their record was 31-0. Their inclusion in the tournament presents a philosophical question due to this basketball ranking concept called strength of schedule. Miami-Ohio was undefeated in their regular season, but this remarkable accomplishment doesn’t mean they are included in March Madness. Apparantly there are 350+ teams in this Division 1 college basketball league.
Enter: “strength of schedule”
It’s this other metric used to determine who gets in to the 68 March Madness slots. It measures difficulty of your wins or something. So Miami (OH) was 31-0 with a perfect record but their strength of schedule was bottom of the food chain vibes so they got positioned to become
an underdog hero.
Gaining haters by simply being included in the NCAA national tournament. Scandalously seeded 11th in the Midwest Region, scheduled in the First Four round of the famous tournament. & they won. so they’re still in the famous national tournament.
They beat the Mustangs 89 to 79.