HP Bagpipe

HP Bagpipe

HP Bagpipe

Why I Love March Madness, But Hate It

Why+I+Love+March+Madness%2C+But+Hate+It

March Madness is right round the corner and everybody’s getting ready for what is always the most exciting month of basketball. It seems that when this 68 team tournament rolls around, the entire world stops to wonder at the madness of college basketball. But the thing is, none of these people who seem so interested in the tournament ACTUALLY CARE about the teams or games. Nobody has any eggs in any baskets, except for maybe a couple of bucks they bet in their bracket group. I’m not talking about the true fans, the actual college basketball fans, like myself. There are people like me, die hard fans who actually follow their team through the season, who actually have watched some regular season games, but this describes only a rare few. The overwhelming majority of Madness lovers would rather watch poker (the most boring “sport” to ever air on ESPN) than a college basketball regular season game, or even conference tournament game. The country obsesses over something it doesn’t actually care about. It becomes ‘cool’ to care about the tournament and everybody jumps on the bandwagon. I love March Madness, but I hate it. This is why:

Brackets. The NCAA tournament is a giant 68 team bracket consisting of 32 teams that earn automatic bids as their respective conference champions; the remaining 36 tournament slots are granted to at-large bids, which are determined by the Selection Committee in a nationally televised event on the Sunday before the tournament begins. After this show, people begin filling out their brackets, choosing all the way through the championship game who they think will win each game, and for most people, this is where the true madness lies. EVERYBODY fills out a bracket, ESPN estimates at least 40 million people a year fill out a bracket, including people who honestly have never heard of over half the teams they pick and could only name three team’s mascots.

If they don’t care, then why do they do it? There are several reasons people fill out brackets.

They fill them out because everybody else does. Everybody is making a bracket, so they don’t want to be left out. The funny thing is, this describes the majority of people. These people usually end up doing tons of research about each team, and using stats to make their decisions. This is where most of these people go wrong, because what they don’t realize is that better record doesn’t always equal better team, or that just because some announcer picked them, doesn’t mean they will be victorious.

Others fill out brackets because they want to win money. Friends usually create “bracket groups”, decide on a certain entry fee, and then compete for the jackpot.

When the tournament starts, it seems everybody watches every game. They cheer for teams and pretend like they actually care, when in reality they don’t actually care at all, they just want a team to win because they picked them in their bracket.

The proof of all of this is the fact that by the time the National Championship rolls around, none of the bandwagoners pay attention. Everybody’s bracket busts long before the first round is finished and most people turn back to their old ways of not caring.

Although I do hate March Madness for the above reasons, I still love it. The basketball never disappoints. The games are always exciting. Anybody who says NBA playoffs are more exciting than March Madness clearly has no idea what they are talking about. College Basketball is filled with so much more passion and so much more heart. The NBA players compete and try hard because they want their next paycheck. The NCAA tournament is filled with players who will never make it in the NBA – they get no money, and being on a college basketball team is one of the most challenging, and time consuming activities available in college. The only reason the players compete is because of a pure love of the game. The passion is evident and more often than not, the team that wins the tournament isn’t the best team, but the team that wants it the most. This is why I love March Madness, but hate it.