The NCAA men’s college basketball tournament has been an American tradition for over 70 years and every March the madness sweeps over the country. People fill out brackets, join challenges, and chart out their lives for the next four weeks. Which games will be watched at home alone and which ones will best be viewed at the local sports bar? Friends make plans to watch the big games together and we are riveted. But why do we continue to do it every year? Why do we get so excited about March madness?
Because it’s about buzzer beaters that defy logic. Because it’s about come from behind wins that seemed inconceivable. Because it’s about Cinderella stories; teams like Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Mercer, Wichita State, or Florida Gulf Coast come onto the scene upsetting a top seed somewhere along the way that causes fans to take notice, get excited, and root for the underdog.
March Madness is about David beating Goliath. We cry when they lose. We scream like a child at Christmas when they win. We feel like a part of their journey through the tournament. We tell our friends the next day, with intense excitement, about the action giving them a play-by-play analysis. We engage for the thrill but then March Madness captures our heart and we’re smitten. We don’t want to break up, we’ve grown attached. We don’t want the feeling to end.
We watch every story line, getting acquainted with key players knowing we will remember them forever. When they go on to the NBA we remember when they were just young college playing, just starting their journey. When tragedy strikes we are devastated. To this day I will never forget Len Bias. What would he have become?
Some people believe that the tournament is the best sporting event offered in this country. Nothing else unites us like these games. When it’s the NFL Playoffs we’re divided, we despise the opposing team and can’t comprehend losing. The same can be said for the NBA, NHL, and MLB. We sit together in the sports bar and cheering with everyone else around us. We’re fans of March madness first and our favorite team second. Just pure respect for the players and tradition.
We root for our alma mater, the team in the town we grew up in, just up the road. Our team is the school our big brother went to, or played for. We wear the school’s colors and feel a sense of pride, especially if it is one shared by a notable NBA player like Shaq, Jordan, or Bird.
We depend on the tournament being the same as they were last year, and the year before, and the year before that. They bring the same excitement, the same big schools, and always many surprises each year. We talk about who got in, and who didn’t. We fill out our brackets and we are confident that this is finally the year it will be perfect. We wait in anticipation as the games start and feel confident about our bracket for just a few moments, but then we feel the doubt as we think about which team we may have overlooked. As we discuss our brackets with our friends, they mention picking those teams. The questions stir in our head and we are in a frenzy. Nothing else in life is this important right now as getting our bracket right.
As the games start our palms get sweaty, our hearts race, and we are filled with intense excitement. It is unexplainable; all we know is that each March we live for this moment. It satisfies our craving. We say out loud, “this is the best thing ever,” and March madness begins. Maybe it’s the long winter coming to an end and warmer weather is on the horizon. We’ve all been cooped up for too long and need something to distract us. I think it is much more than that. It is the hope that it instills in us, that there still are Cinderella stories and when no one picks you to win, you come from behind and defeat that team, becoming legends overnight. We are there with them, cheering and living vicariously through it all because it gives us hope. It shows us that the impossible is still possible and we are energized.
We’ll be back next year to do it all over again, without a doubt.
