D1 Differences in March Madness

March Madness might arguably be the the most immersed sports tournament of the year. Not only is it appealing to the public because the amount of sports betting, but also individual participation that allows every person to be able to fill in and attempt to determine who will win and who will lose.

Despite the upsets and the expected wins throughout the entire tournament, the main team in the underdog spotlight is the team from the tiny town of Jersey City, New Jersey. The popular rising team of the St. Peter’s University has been the most unexpected, yet most exciting team to watch for the past two weeks.

The St. Peter’s Peacocks have bought their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen after defeating two powerhouses in the NCAA tournament, Kentucky and Murray State. Despite what it seemed by entering the tournament as a 15 seed, all that has been accomplished seems far from anything but extraordinary.

Throughout the past few monumental wins made by the Peacocks, multiple different tweets, posts and realizations have been brought to light about how different the basketball programs in March Madness truly are. Mainly the differences that have been exploited have been between St. Peter’s and Kentucky. Differences displayed within previous days have been between things like facilities, budgets and ranked amount of players.

Characteristics within both main facilities could not be farther from one another. The University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena, can hold up to 20,545 people, being able to accompany the university’s student population of 30,473. Besides the overall size of the grandiose size of Rupp Arena, it also took at least $55 million dollars to construct The amount of money put into the arena for the team may seem quite incomparable to the budget of the entire sports programs, which was about $138.3 million dollars every year.

On the Sweet Sixteen side of the debate, St. Peter’s University does not have quite the same amount of money, or even comparable facilities, but somehow ended up on top. Until recently the Peacocks did not even have an arena, the Yanitelly Recreational Life Center has recently been changed to the Run Baby Run Arena for St. Peter’s athletics teams. With a whole construction budget of $6 million,  capacity of 3,200 and obvious eye appeal, the two schools and basketball programs could not be farther from different. The arena capacity also compensated for more than enough for the entire university’s population of 2,316.

The most noticeable different between the two teams, when looking from the bracket point of view is the actual team talent. The University of Kentucky’s roster for the year 2021-2022 was nationally ranked as the number two recruiting class, and number one in the SEC. By having three five-star recruits just in the last class alone, Kentucky undoubtedly stood out this year in March Madness. St. Peter’s was a little different, almost nationally unraked as a recruiting class for the team of 2021-2022, and not having a single starred athlete, no one saw the Peacocks defeating the Wildcats.

Despite the wins and losses, March Madness truly has lived up to its name this year. The Sweet Sixteen is about to start and everyone is ready to see what happens.