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Weekend Wrap-Up: March Madness Is On, Bengals Pay Chase, & More
The 2025 March Madness Brackets Are Out, Cincinnati Pays Its Receivers & More In Weekend Wrap-Up
Ladies & Gentlemen, March Madness Is On!
The time has come. The wait is over. With the unveiling of the 2025 Men’s College Basketball Tournament Bracket by all the main NCAAB news outlets, it is officially safe to say that March Madness is upon us!
In what’s become one of the most awaited dates for college hoops fans around, yesterday marked this year’s Selection Sunday, where the NCAA’s selection committee decided which school’s would have a chance to go for March Madness glory, how they will be seeded and who they will face.
THE BRACKET 🙌#MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/fo6lA8hJ7g
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 16, 2025
Following Selection Sunday, the newest AP poll was released showing the four No.1 seeds in the upcoming tournament leading the helm.
NEW AP POLL! 🚨
1. Duke
2. Houston
3. Florida
4. Auburn
5. St John’s
6. Tennessee
7. Alabama
8. Michigan State
9. Texas Tech
10. Louisville— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 17, 2025
With big names like Texas, North Carolina, and San Diego State all looking to sneak their way into the tournament via a win in the First Four round, the only question left is, are you ready for the Madness?
Auburn, Duke, Florida & Houston Take No.1 Seeds
As the March Madness seedings were unveiled, as expected by fans and experts everywhere, Auburn, Duke, Florida, and Houston took the No.1 seeds in the tournament, following dominant regular seasons in which title contention was the clear objective at hand for each team.
First up, representing the South Region will be the Auburn Tigers, who after winning the SEC regular season, and playing through the second hardest schedule in all of college ball, got the nod even while falling to Tennessee in the semifinals of the SEC tournament.
AUBURN CLINCHES THE NO. 1 SEED IN THE SOUTH REGION 🙌
WAR EAGLE 🐅 #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/yQpGbSs4vH
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 16, 2025
Up next, leaving any NCAAB rumors aside of Cooper Flagg potentially not playing in the tournament because of an ankle injury scare and leading the East Region are the Duke Blue Devils.
Finishing as champions in the ACC tournament for the second time in three years, even with Cooper Flagg not being available to play following an ankle injury scare that brought Duke’s potential March Madness run to a halt, if Flagg is good to go, I’d be looking at Duke’s +325 Men’s Basketball Championship Winner odds with close attention.
GOT THE 1️⃣ IN THE EAST‼️😈#MarchMadness 🪩🕺 pic.twitter.com/52n7m3nYB1
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 16, 2025
Locked in as the No.1 seed for the West Region are the Florida Gators, a team who besides being one of the teams who beat Auburn this season, alongside Alabama, Duke, Tennessee, and Texas A&M, also comes into the tournament as SEC Tournament champions after beating Tennessee by nine points in the conference championship game yesterday.
The 1-seed in the West Region… FLORIDA!#MarchMadness @GatorsMBK pic.twitter.com/VPgpx65z9a
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 16, 2025
Last but not least, don’t sleep on the Houston Cougars. Coming into the tournament after winning the Big 12 tournament and with a 30-4 season record, don’t be shocked if the Cougars go deep in the tournament.
LET THE MADNESS BEGIN! 🏀
The Houston Cougars earned a No. 1 seed in the Midwest region of the NCAA Tournament and just learned their opening round opponent.
Latest: https://t.co/HE6HpaemXp pic.twitter.com/QZt71THwQl
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) March 16, 2025
Again, the only question left is, are you ready for the Madness?
Bengals Finally Pay Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins
Some promising news finally came from Cincinnati as the Bengals, a team not necessarily known for dishing out big contracts, decided to do right by their two top receivers, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, by offering them hefty contract extensions inking them to the team for the foreseeable future.
BREAKING: #Bengals WRs Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins exclusively tell me they’ve agreed to contract extensions with the team.
Ja’Marr gets: 4-years, $161M with $112M guaranteed — making him the highest-paid non-QB in NFL history.
Tee gets: 4-years, $115M with the first two… pic.twitter.com/zbdnEDELgz
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) March 17, 2025
While Higgins, who was previously franchise tagged for the second consecutive season will now be linked with the Bengals for four years and $115 million with the first two years fully guaranteed, making him the highest-paid WR2 in the league, Chase’s new contract is exactly what fans were expecting.
Yes, Chase got PAID!
Getting a similar four-year deal like Higgins, Chase got $161 million with $112 million guaranteed, making him the highest-paid non QB in the league.
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) March 17, 2025
It’s safe to say that following these moves, Cincinnati’s Super Bowl LX betting odds got a boost worth taking an early shot on.
Now, paying Chase and Higgins is cool and all, NFL fans are applauding the move made by Cincinnati. But, when are they going to pay Trey Hendrickson?
Considering Trey Hendrickson’s stats from the past few seasons, he deserves a payday as much as Chase and Tiggins. But we all know that already.
Sources: Cincinnati is working to retain Trey Hendrickson and discussions are ongoing between the two sides.
The Bengals are attempting to do what many in the league thought difficult and keep — and pay — all three of their stars. pic.twitter.com/3fQjvqjwZg
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) March 17, 2025
Do right by Trey Bengals, do right by Trey.
MLB Gets Ready for Tokyo Series
Who here is ready for MLB games to take over the scene? Well, stay ready for a couple more weeks while the regular season starts. But hey, while we all sit back and wait, how about a little Tokyo Series action between the reigning World Series Champions Los Angeles Dodgers, with Shohei Ohtani at the helm, and the Chicago Cubs?
The #TokyoSeries is tomorrow.
🆚 @Cubs vs @Dodgers
🏟️ Tokyo Dome
📺 @TNTSportsDon’t miss it. pic.twitter.com/wJkve2pcSU
— MLB Europe (@MLBEurope) March 17, 2025
Ohtani, aka the biggest global baseball star in the world right now will be looking to once again light up the Tokyo Dome just like he did a couple of days ago in an exhibition game where he showed a poor baseball what it was like to crush the roof of Japan’s most important baseball stadium.
SHOHEI OHTANI HOMERS AT THE TOKYO DOME! #TOKYOSERIES pic.twitter.com/04dK1gKnt5
— MLB (@MLB) March 15, 2025
Let the action in Tokyo begin!
Lando Norris Calls Race in F1’s Return
Over in Australia, racing fans everywhere were finally able to sit back and enjoy the start of the new F1 season with the Australian Grand Prix taking center stage.
In a surprising result, Mclaren’s Lando Norris ended up taking the win, edging out current champion Max Verstappen by 0.895 seconds, while Mercedes driver, George Russell would round out the podium coming in third.
LANDO NORRIS WINS THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX! 🏆#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/wTMV1El0lK
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 16, 2025
Norris, a fan favorite and in charge of driving what some people are calling the best car in F1 this season will now be looking at trying to make it two in a row next Sunday when the F1 has its second Grand Prix of the season in China.
The moment @LandoNorris crossed the line to win in Australia! 🇦🇺👀#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/YGuL05IMki
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 16, 2025
Until next week, stay classy peeps!
