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So your sports-fan friends, family and coworkers have gone a little crazy the last few weeks, calling, texting or intently huddling around each other, wearing more basketball jerseys than usual, passing around sheets of paper (and, occasionally, cash) and asking you if you want in.

It's March Madness again! And you know what that means!

Well, no, probably not, if (like me) you don't follow college basketball and don't have a sports-minded life partner. I understand the general idea, of course, just from social osmosis: All the college basketball teams play each other until one wins, everyone has their life choices either validated or invalidated, and the wrong person in your office pool gets the money.

But why do fans talk passionately about seeds? What are bubbles? Cinderellas? Should you fear the bracket buster? Let's find out together.

What is March Madness, anyway?

March is the magical time every year when 68 college basketball teams compete to win the NCAA Division I championship in men's and women's basketball by playing each other in a single-elimination tournament over just a few weeks. (That's the "madness" part.)

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How do they decide who plays in March Madness?

All the NCAA Division teams play in one of 32 different conferences—

Sorry, went too fast. NCAA Division I (or D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. These are generally the schools even we non-sports people have heard of. They have "conferences," which are groups of teams based on location with names like "Missouri Valley," "Pac-12," Patriot League," Sun Belt," etc. because there are a lot of teams and this makes things a bit more manageable. The Gators are in the Southeastern Conference, for example. FSU is in the Atlantic Coast.  

All of these conferences play their own tournaments to kick off March Madness and the winners of those tournaments automatically get to compete in the national tournament. They're pre-qualified, so to speak, and are said to have gotten "automatic bids." But that's only 32 teams.

The other 36 teams are teams that didn't win their conference tournaments but impressed the NCAA selection committee enough to get offered invitations, or "at-large berths," to play, and the names get announced in a big, televised event called "Selection Sunday."

Yes, every single element of March Madness has its own highly-marketable name. Accept it. Embrace it.

The 68 teams are split into four regions (also called regionals) for the tournament, In the men's tournament, it's the East, South, Midwest, and West. The women's tournament's regions are named for the cities the final game is played in; this year it's Bridgeport, Conn.; Greensboro, N.C.; Wichita, Kan.; and Spokane, Wash. Easy so far.

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What is a March Madness bracket?

There are two answers, here. The official bracket is the schedule usually presented as a tree diagram that shows you which teams are playing which other teams, in what order, during a single-elimination tournament. Two teams play, the winner goes on to the next round, and so on. This is established by the NCAA.

A "bracket" also refers to the paper your buddies or your coworkers at the office pass around, where everyone in the group hands in their best guesses for the winners for each round all the way up to the final winner, and they often bet on which one of their group comes the closest. Betters make their choices carefully, based on obsessive, in-depth knowledge of the teams and their rosters, careful observation of the coaches and the team play so far this season, knowledge of player injuries, personal childhood team loyalties that disregard all history and logic, or even, for all I know, by favorite mascots.

What do people bet on during March Madness?

I'm not sure there's anything involved, start to finish, that people don't bet on. Your friendly office pool most likely just bets on the final winner, but people bet on who gets at-large bids, what seeds individual teams get, each and every game and elements in the games, whatever.

But that's beyond the range of this article, since I ran into point spreads, over/unders, foreign foes, moneylines, derivatives, futures, and First to 15 props, and I had to go lie down.

But what is a March Madness 'seed'?

Every one of the 68 teams gets a numerical ranking from 1-16, called a "seed," that will determine where each one will be placed in the region. If your team is the No. 16 seed, it just means they're ranked No. 16 in their region. Sorry.

In the bracket, the highest-ranked (or seeded) team will face the lowest-seeded team.

Why not just call it ranking? I do not know. It's a sports thing.

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What is the 'First Four'?

Turns out that 68 isn't a great number to figure out a massive single-elimination tournament with.

To get them down to a nice easily-divisible number, and to get the excitement building for the fans, the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers (remember? the teams that won their conferences already?) and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams (out of the teams that didn't win but got invited to play) play in a round called "The First Four" and the winners move on, leaving us 64 teams.

What are the 'Sweet Sixteen,' the 'Elite Eight,' and the 'Final Four'?

I did warn you they like names. After the First Four round, you've got three weeks of practically nonstop basketball ahead. After the first round when 64 teams suddenly become 32 teams, the games over the next week leave you sixteen teams, the "Sweet 16." That weekend, they get whittled down to the "Elite 8." I think you can see where this is going.

During the last weekend, the "Final Four" — one winner from each region — compete for the national championship.

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That's the general idea of March Madness, aside from the never-ending drama and the epic wins and tragic losses and buzzer-beater, game-winning shots and heart-rending injuries and the heroic underdogs and the screaming emotional rollercoasters that will occupy your friends', family's and coworkers' lives most of the month.

Who wins March Madness?

Whichever team manages to win all six of its games, over three weekends.

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What are bracket busters? What are bubbles? What is a March Madness Cinderella?

Ah, yes, I did promise those. 

A bracket buster is a team you picked to make it to the Final Four that, maddeningly, lost inside of the first round or two and caused you to say words that HR would like to talk to you about. And yes, your friends and coworkers will mock you for it, that's an essential part of March Madness.

A bracket buster can also refer to a team that unexpectedly defeats the team that everyone thought was going to win and thereby busted everyone's bracket.

Bubble teams occur before March Madness, during the selection process for the at-large bids. Those are the teams that might or might not get selected, but no one really knows. These are the sorts of things that basketball fans obsess on, along with all the other things.

If a team does way better than anyone expected them to, especially if they're a low-seeded team, they're considered a Cinderella. Some fans insist it has to be a first-round upset to be a Cinderella. If there is a Cinderella, it's quite likely they're the reason your bracket got busted.

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Are at-large bids the best teams that didn't win their conference tournaments?

Depends on which fan you ask. Every die-hard basketball fan has deep-seated emotional scars over their team getting passed over for an at-large bid even though they had an AMAZING SEASON that only missed winning by ONE BAD CALL in favor of a LOSER team that doesn't DESERVE to BE on a FREAKIN' COURT, much less playing in the MADNESS.

Just have an exit strategy planned before you ask, is all I'm saying.

Where did the name 'March Madness' come from?

Well, now it's an official brand of the NCAA.

But originally it came from an essay by Henry V. Porter, assistant executive secretary of the Illinois High School Association, in the 1930s. He was so impressed with the tournament he dubbed it March Madness, and other sportswriters and sports columnists, who knew a good alliteration when they heard it, ran with it.

When does March Madness 2022 begin?

The teams that will be competing will be announced on March 13 (Selection Sunday), and the first games will begin on March 15.

The bracket will be announced after the seeds are determined.

How can I watch March Madness online?

All the games will be streamed on NCAA's March Madness Live, but you have to sign in to your TV provider to be able to access the games.

The men's tournament games will be broadcast on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV, or you can watch them on any online service that offers them as part of their packages, such as Hulu Live TV, SlingTV, DirecTV Stream, and FuboTV. 

The women's tournament will air on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, and ESPNU. The women's Final Four will air on ESPN. ESPN cable subscribers will be able to stream the games, as can ESPN+ digital subscribers.

Now go! Enjoy! And someone please fill out a bracket based on favorite mascots and tell me how you did.

C. A. Bridges is a Digital Producer for the USA TODAY Network, working with multiple newsrooms across Florida. Local journalists work hard to keep you informed about the things you care about, and you can support them by subscribing to your local news organization. Read more articles by Chris here and follow him on Twitter at @cabridges