New reporting from dBusiness, by Tim Keenan, says the NCAA and the 2027 Men's Final Four Detroit Local Organizing Committee have launched Read to the Final Four, a statewide literacy program for third-graders across Michigan's 83 counties. Students log reading minutes in a March Madness-style bracket, and organizers expect more than 100,000 kids from over 2,000 elementary schools to take part during the 2026-27 school year. Since the program debuted in 2016, dBusiness reports, readers nationwide have logged more than 121 million minutes. The bracket builds toward the men's Final Four at Ford Field on April 3 and April 5, 2027. Strait has not independently confirmed this.
Why we're watching: we will cover the local schools and reading milestones directly as the bracket plays out.