Arkansas advanced to the Sweet 16 with a six-point win over High Point during March Madness. Meleek Thomas’ decision to refer to the next round as the “third round” led me to a fascinating discovery about trademarks.
He narrowly avoided a lawsuit! (Sarcasm)
The NCAA is actively suing DraftKings for the use of registered trademarks associated with the men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments. The sportsbook is not allowed to say “Sweet Sixteen.”
Arkansas advanced to the third round of March Madness.
Meleek Thomas scored 19 points during a six-point victory over High Point in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. He and the Razorbacks shot more than 50% from the field and more than 55% from beyond the arc. They ultimately closed out the win with a late run in the second half.
No. 4-seed Arkansas will now advance to play the winner of No. 9-seed Utah State and No. 1-seed Arizona. Likely the latter.
Thomas filmed a celebratory video for the men’s basketball team’s official social media accounts as he made his way back from the court into the locker room. Notice how he refers to the Sweet 16 as the “third round.”
Yessir 😤🐗 pic.twitter.com/Qc646jc19R
— Arkansas Razorbacks Men’s Basketball 🐗 (@RazorbackMBB) March 22, 2026
Local Arkansas reporter Tyler Cass quipped that Thomas’ word choice was intentional to avoid a lawsuit. The NCAA is actively suing DraftKings for the use of the term he chose not to say.
It does not want the sportsbook to use trademarked terms like “March Madness,” “Sweet Sixteen,” “Elite 8” and “Final Four.” The NCAA said DraftKings’ “unauthorized use of its trademarks is flatly contrary to one of the Association’s most deeply held institutional values: that sports betting must not be associated with, endorsed by, or linked to NCAA championships or the student-athletes who compete in them.”
Cass joked that Thomas chose to avoid a similar fate by saying “third round” instead of “Sweet 16.”
The NCAA does not own the trademark for Sweet 16!
As I dug deeper into Cass’ witticism, I discovered a unique nuance to this situation.
Most people — myself included — would assume the NCAA owns the trademarks on popular college basketball terms like “Sweet 16” and “Sweet Sixteen” because they are synonymous with March Madness. That is actually not the case.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association owns the federal trademarks. It started using the phrase “Sweet 16” for its postseason tournaments as early as 1958 and registered both terms as trademarks in June 1988. The NCAA entered a licensing agreement with the KHSAA to use the terms for its own tournament’s third round 10 years later in 1998.
So, while the NCAA owns the trademark for “NCAA Sweet Sixteen” with permission from the KHSAA, the general term “Sweet Sixteen” or “Sweet 16” belongs to the state of Kentucky. Today I learned!