From the time the Division I men’s basketball season begins in late October to the end of the regular season in early March, it’s all part of brewing the madness. March Madness that is.
March is upon us again and with that comes the NCAA March Madness Men’s College Basketball Tournament, one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year. Anyone who follows college basketball knows that this is the real deal, the Holy Grail of hoops, the “Big Dance”.
On Sunday, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Committee got together for the famous Selection Sunday, when they picked the seeds for the field of 65 teams to be in the tournament. It’s the day players’ dreams can come true: the day they find out if they get to play in the most respected college basketball tournament.
This year’s field is much different than last year’s, when all the #1, #2, and #3 seeds made it to the Sweet Sixteen and all four #1 seeds advanced to the Elite Eight. In my opinion this year’s tournament is up for grabs, and there are no definites like the 2009 champion, the University of North Carolina. Bracketology, the science of picking the winning teams for the tournament, invented by college basketball guru Joe Lunardi who has been predicting the NCAA Tournament field for ESPN.com since its commencement, is completely and utterly a guessing game. The #1 seeds for the tournament are obviously expected to win but how do you know a #16 seed won’t pull off an upset? You don’t, and that is what makes this tournament so exciting.
When the opening-round playoff game begins on Tuesday, Mar. 16, millions of Americans will be tuning in all the way through April 5 when the National Championship game is played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Remember when I said this was one of the most anticipated sporting events of the year? Yeah, you better believe it. CBS Sports, who became responsible for covering all NCAA Tournament games in 1991, expanded their horizons in 2004. That is when they started March Madness on Demand, which involved online streaming video. Last year, March Madness on Demand exploded when over 7 million viewers watched games online. The popularity of the tournament grows every year – and that’s why I love it. The tournament’s coaches, players, fans, and media correspondents live up to the hype that comes with such a great sporting event. Fans all over the country fill out tournament brackets and try to live up to Joe Lunardi standards, picking who they think will take it all. The excitement and tradition is rivaled by very few events in sports.
This is a tournament of upsets, blowouts, triumphs, unsung heroes, favorites, underdogs, and drama. It features games in several different sites all over the country, and brings out families, friends, rowdy student sections, and pep bands. From the classic voices of CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg to the clutch shots of Michael Jordan in 1982, Christian Laetner in ’92, and Mario Chalmers in 2008, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament will always be timeless and feature the thrill of madness that it brings to its players, coaches, and fans.
Have you filled out your bracket yet?