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In case you think March Madness is a “football or baseball” tournament like one of my unfortunately misinformed professors, it is not. It is the single most exciting time of year for any reasonably avid sports fan. You don’t have to love the game of basketball, or any sport for that matter, to appreciate the excitement the NCAA Tournament brings year in and year out. The drama is upon us again, unfolding right in front of our eyes.
If you don’t understand the magnitude of the NCAA Tournament, let me put it in perspective: Have you ever once been asked to fill out a bracket for the National Invitational Tournament? I’m guessing not ecause people don’t care. How about a tournament pool for the CBI? Oh, you’ve never heard of the College Basketball Invitational? That’s because there is a grand total of three teams in it from “major” conferences: St. John’s, Stanford and Oregon State. Essentially, it is college basketball’s equivalent of the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, except a lot more embarrassing.
If you don’t enjoy watching the NCAA Tournament, then I know enough about you to know that you and I will never have any sort of meaningful relationship. There is just an atmosphere surrounding it that makes me want to watch every second of every game.
Believe it or not though, I do have a few problems with the tournament. The first is CBS’ sorry excuse for coverage of the event. I understand they are the only station with the rights to air the games, but I feel like they could put a little more effort into it. I could be wrong, but I know they have camera crews at every game. Therefore, I don’t think we the viewers should be forced to watch inconsequential games when Arizona and Maryland are tied with less than one minute to go.
The other major gripe I have is with a word that is thrown around more than a Texas Tech pigskin: “Bracketology.” As if implying that there is a science to picking every game in the NCAA Tournament weren’t bad enough, the analysts convince us their opinions are as good as gold. The truth is that my mother has just as good a chance of filling out a winning bracket as I do, and she picks teams by whose coach seems nicer. The bottom line is there is no science to filling out a bracket. It’s comparable to playing poker. All you really need is knowledge of the rules, and the rest is luck. It is a game of percentages, but anyone who has ever filled out a bracket or played a hand of poker knows that percentages can be deceiving.
As frustrating as it may be at times, the unpredictability is what makes this such a special time of year for sports fans.
Bangor Daily News