March Madness

*
*

I love this time of year! The way college basketball determines their champion is the best of any sport in the world. Any team can win it all regardless of their record with the exception of the Ivy League. It starts with "Championship Week" and every conference holds a conference tournament, many of the smaller conferences have already started theirs. It's simple, if you win your conference tournament you are in the NCAA Tournament. Win six games in the NCAA Tournament and you are national champion. So even if you went 0-31 this year if you win your conference tournament and then run through the NCAA Tournament you win it all, no matter what school you are Cleveland State University or Duke, you have a chance if you keep winning.

It's going to happen soon too, a smaller school is going to win it all. Look at Butler last year or George Mason a few years ago, they came close. This is truely a sport where the champion is determined on the court/field of play. I also love how these smaller schools get chances to play against the bigger schools. Every year some of these smaller schools beat some of these bigger, blue blooded programs. That's what makes the NCAA Tournament the greatest sporting event on Earth. It doesn't matter who you are once that ball is thrown up you have 40 minutes to outscore your opponent and if you do you move on. Players that aren't known at all can become heros by making a buzzer beater from a school like Bucknell to beat a team like Kansas. A good player at Davidson can put a team on his back and carry them to the elite 8 of the tournament.

Next Sunday the field of 68 will be announced and Monday and Tuesday people all across this country will fill out brackets trying to pick the winner of each game. The funny part about this is the guy who watches college basketball all year long and knows the game pretty well will pick less correct games than Sue from accounting who doesn't watch at all and picks based on which mascot she likes better. It gives you a reason to be invested in every game and see if you can pick the correct 12 seed that is going to beat a 5 seed. That's almost a given that it will happen and you just hope your team doesn't get a 5 seed. This year is more wide open than ever before and could very well be a year that a 4th seed or lower wins it all. So if your national champion gets bounced in the 2nd or 3rd round don't think you are out of it this year because this very well could be a year not a single person in your bracket pool picks the correct national champion. There are literally 15 teams that could win it and all the top seeds can be beaten by an underdog.

This year more channels are carrying games and you will have the option to watch any game you want as every single game will be televised somewhere. That means you will be flipping back and forth instead of waiting for CBS to cut to another game with a look in. So in less than two weeks the NCAA Tournament starts, but remember anyone can win it all despite their record by going through their conference tournament and then the NCAA Tournament. So in reality March Madness has already begun.