March Madness

March Madness may refer to:

Northwestern Wildcats

The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern has eight men's and eleven women's Division I sports teams. The mascot is Willie the Wildcat. The athletic director is former Northern Illinois University Athletic Director Jim Phillips, who took office in April 2008.

Origin of the name

Northwestern's athletic teams are nicknamed the Wildcats. Before 1924, they were known as "The Purple" and unofficially as "The Fighting Methodists." The name Wildcats was bestowed upon the university in 1924 by Wallace Abbey, a writer for the Chicago Daily Tribune who wrote that even in a loss to the University of Chicago, "Football players had not come down from Evanston; wildcats would be a name better suited to Coach Glenn Thistletwaite's boys." The team was also referred to in the article as "a Purple wall of wildcats." The name was so popular that university board members made "Wildcats" the official nickname just months later. In 1972, the student body voted to change the official nickname from "Wildcats" to "Purple Haze" but the new name never stuck.

Wildcat

The wildcat (Felis silvestris) is a small cat native to most of Africa, Europe, and Southwest and Central Asia into India, western China, and Mongolia. Because of its wide range it is assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2002. However, crossbreeding of wildcat and domestic cat ( Felis silvestris catus) occurs in particular in Europe and is considered a potential threat for the preservation of the wild species.

The wildcat shows a high degree of geographic variation. Whereas the Asiatic wildcat is spotted, the African wildcat is faintly striped, has short sandy-grey fur, banded legs, red-backed ears and a tapering tail. The European wildcat is striped, has long fur and a bushy tail with a rounded tip, and is larger than a domestic cat.

Genetic, morphological and archaeological evidence suggests that African wildcats were domesticated probably 9,000–10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent region of the Near East, coincident with the rise of agriculture and the need to protect harvests stored in granaries from rodents. Until 2007, twenty-two subspecies were recognised. Since publication of results of a phylogeographical analysis, only five subspecific groups have been suggested, including the Chinese mountain cat.

Michigan Wolverines

The Michigan Wolverines comprise 27 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except women's water polo, which competes in the NCAA inter-divisional Collegiate Water Polo Association. Team colors are maize and blue, though these are different shades of "maize" and "blue" than those used by the university at large. The winged helmet is a recognized icon of Michigan Athletics.

In 11 of the past 20 years (through 2014–15), Michigan has finished in the top five of the NACDA Directors' Cup, a list compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics that charts institutions' overall success in college sports. UM has finished in the top ten of the Directors' Cup standings in sixteen of the award's twenty-two seasons.

Conference affiliations

Championships

National team championships

As of July 2, 2014, the University of Michigan has won 36 NCAA team titles.