Are you ready for some March Madness? We're finally into the month of March and with Selection Sunday only a few short weeks away, the tension is mounting. Brackets are going to be filled out everyone and their mother and more money will be bet on schools you've never heard of and probably never will again than all the commercials cost for the Super Bowl. But in all seriousness, March Madness is a great time to be a college basketball fan. With Michigan as a sure lock to be in the tournament this year and a good chance to be somewhere between a 3 and 5 seed, I can confidently say that I actually care a lot more about this year's than most other years. Especially with the constant looming of the flawed BCS college football system, there has been relatively no change in the NCAA bracket in many years.
Many college football fans are upset with the current state of affairs when it comes to how teams are picked for bowl games, and especially the National Championship game. Many want a +1 format (4 team playoff, 3 games) so that more teams have a real chance of proving they're the best team in the country. The problem with this is that football games are so much different than basketball games. I've played in AAU tournaments where we played 3 or 4 games a day for a whole weekend. You would be lucky to find a football player that wants to play 2 or 3 games in a week. The amount of wear and tear on your body from a football game compared to a basketball game is comparing an apple to a watermelon. Yes they're both fruit, but I don't know of anybody who is going to eat a few watermelons a day.
That being said, basketball is one of the few sports I know of that you can schedule them very closely and still be able to play and compete at a high level. Will the run to the championship game be tough on the players? Of course. But that's the point. Its not supposed to be easy. If it was, you'd have the finals full every year with Kentucky's, UNC's, Duke's, and Syracuse's with no mid majors or Cinderella stories(Butler). The sheer unpredictability of the tournament is why people watch it. There are very few times in which the final four are just the top seeded teams and only once where they are all the #1 seeds(I'm looking at you 2008). It's also one of the few things in sports (and Vegas) where there are no surefire bets. Teams have to win six games to become National Champs(sorry 16/17 seeds, but the past speaks for itself). If you've got a horse in the race, they most likely have a shot at making a run, except for the 16 seeds I just mentioned. That's never happened and probably never will. Unless this happens...
Anyways, March Madness is one of the best times of the year to watch college basketball, or any sport for that matter. When you can turn on the TV or go online and watch dozens of games and be excited by most of them, what's not to love? I'll be pulling for another National Championship from the Maize and Blue but I'll still be watching the other games as well because, who knows, there could be another Virginia Commonwealth or Butler again this year. One thing I know I'll be cheering for before Selection Sunday, for the first and hopefully last time, is an Ohio State win in basketball this weekend. If Michigan beats Penn State and Ohio beats MSU, three way tie B1G champs. Anyways, I'll leave you with this video as you're waiting for Madness to begin. Go Blue!
I agree, there is nothing quite like March Madness. Even when UofM wasn't in the field, I felt the passion running through every other team's veins. There's an aura behind being in the Big Dance. The system put in place is fantastic, and other sports/leagues should try to emulate it. The drama and emotions of the games is the huge appeal. Any way that another league could copy that drama and they've got a good thing going.
ReplyDeleteUntil this year I was never as surrounded by March Madness as I am now. I find it incredibly interesting that this series of games can bring so many people together whether to watch the games or form a bracket for the the entire competition. This competition is proven to be country-wide when we see President Obama picking a bracket himself. The system allows for people to bet on certain teams, based on a multitude of ways, as we learned from the article presented in class. I did not make a bracket this year, although next year I will most definitely not miss out on this.
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