This video explains what March Madness is and exactly how the NCAA Tournament works for all those uninitiated folks out there looking to get in on all the fun.

Released by CNN on Friday, this short explanatory video has all the information you need to follow along with all the hardcore basketball fans in your life.

Beginning with the basic set-up of the NCAA Tournament, the video calmly and swiftly guides you through brackets, the way teams are selected to play in March Madness, and the reasons why the tourney is, in narrator Matt Miner's opinion, the best three weeks in sports ... because of its unpredicatbility.

The term 'March Madness' is a description of a phenomenon which happens every March, which is why people are interested in the first place: because it really is sort of insanity in the world of college basketball, he explains.

He then goes through a breakdown of exactly how the 68 teams that will make up the 2012 NCAA Tournament are chosen from the more than 300 NCAA Division I college basketball teams, dissecting at-large bids, selection committees and more.

He then gets into what an office pool is, how exactly it works, and how the teams go from 68 teams to the Final Four (being held in New Orleans, La., in 2012), and finally one National Championship game winner.

He goes on to describe the significant role in the popularity of the sport that gambling plays:

The estimates I've seen are that there is something like $2.5 billion wagered each year on the NCAA Tournament and most of that is illegal betting, Winer explains. It's tolerated largely because it's in the form of low-stakes office pools.

He goes on to explain how pools work, and how they keep people glued to the set, before getting to the meat of it, a breakdown of how people fill out their brackets.

But his final word on bracketology may be the most prescient: My advice: don't think too much about it, go with your gut, and have fun.

And people who have watched it agree that it is a great guide for getting to know about March Madness and everything that goes along with it. As Facebook user Tiffany said before sending out to her friends (last name redacted for privacy): LADIES, this one is for you if you don't know about March Madness.

Click play below to watch CNN's NCAA Tournament video which answers the following common question: 'What is March Madness and how does it work?

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