Oh The Madness!
March is great. The weather starts getting warmer. Spring is just around the corner and leaves return to the trees, making the world looks a little less barren than it did before. Mostly though...March is about the madness.
As an avid sports fan, I follow all four major sports religiously (although the NHL is quickly losing points in my mind, but that’s a story for another time). I also follow the two big college sports with great interest. March is a great month for pro sports. NFL free agency is in full swing, the NBA is nearing the playoffs as each team makes that final push for a spot in the postseason, and baseball players are in either Florida or Arizona tuning up for the season opener.
For a few weeks at the end of the month though (and for the first weekend in April), none of the pro sports matter. They are all put on the back burner as the world turns its attention to the college hard court. For many, it’s almost as if all other sports cease to exist until that special team of the year is cutting down the nets. That, my friends, is why it is called “The Madness.”
Soon, people will be taking off work a couple Thursdays and Fridays to watch games with their friends. Saturdays and Sundays will be spent in front of the television instead of out on the town. Just think, this Thursday we will have sixteen games to watch. As if that isn’t enough (it never is), there are sixteen more the very next day! Then, over the weekend, there are eight games on Saturday and eight more on Sunday. For those of you keeping track, that makes forty-eight games in four days - and that’s just the first two rounds! We have only just begun!
As if watching the games and cheering for your team weren’t enough, the Tournament brings with it the ever popular Pick ‘em Pools. You have heard of these, yes? The idea is that you pick the winners of each game of the tournament by filling out a bracket you either cut out of the newspaper or printed off your computer; then you get points for each game picked correctly, usually with more points given for a game picked in a later round. The winner of the usually takes home a nice prize, sometimes of significant monetary value.
Later today when the tournament field is revealed, we'll all be scrambling to fill out our brackets. More gambling takes place during the NCAA Tournament than any other sporting event in the world - perhaps a reason for its popularity. The bottom line here is that it’s tournament time. The Madness is upon us! I know I couldn’t be happier.
As an avid sports fan, I follow all four major sports religiously (although the NHL is quickly losing points in my mind, but that’s a story for another time). I also follow the two big college sports with great interest. March is a great month for pro sports. NFL free agency is in full swing, the NBA is nearing the playoffs as each team makes that final push for a spot in the postseason, and baseball players are in either Florida or Arizona tuning up for the season opener.
For a few weeks at the end of the month though (and for the first weekend in April), none of the pro sports matter. They are all put on the back burner as the world turns its attention to the college hard court. For many, it’s almost as if all other sports cease to exist until that special team of the year is cutting down the nets. That, my friends, is why it is called “The Madness.”
Soon, people will be taking off work a couple Thursdays and Fridays to watch games with their friends. Saturdays and Sundays will be spent in front of the television instead of out on the town. Just think, this Thursday we will have sixteen games to watch. As if that isn’t enough (it never is), there are sixteen more the very next day! Then, over the weekend, there are eight games on Saturday and eight more on Sunday. For those of you keeping track, that makes forty-eight games in four days - and that’s just the first two rounds! We have only just begun!
As if watching the games and cheering for your team weren’t enough, the Tournament brings with it the ever popular Pick ‘em Pools. You have heard of these, yes? The idea is that you pick the winners of each game of the tournament by filling out a bracket you either cut out of the newspaper or printed off your computer; then you get points for each game picked correctly, usually with more points given for a game picked in a later round. The winner of the usually takes home a nice prize, sometimes of significant monetary value.
Later today when the tournament field is revealed, we'll all be scrambling to fill out our brackets. More gambling takes place during the NCAA Tournament than any other sporting event in the world - perhaps a reason for its popularity. The bottom line here is that it’s tournament time. The Madness is upon us! I know I couldn’t be happier.
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