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A Month of Madness

The basketball fan never tends to understand that old adage about March: "In like a lion, out like a lamb." In fact, to the true college basketball fan and sports nut, the saying bears just the opposite meaning.

Every year, the third month in the calendar comes in with a quiet murmur as the college basketball season ends, escalates in excitement as the conference tournaments go on, and then finally, as the month keeps going, Selection Sunday hits and the lucky 65 teams make it to the big dance.

By the end of the month, excitement reaches fury level as the Final Four is determined and a champion is finally decided in the early days of April.

For those of you out there who haven't succumbed to March Madness, you're missing out. The NCAA men's basketball tournament is one of the most exciting sporting events of the year, and every March when it comes around, there is no better time for calling it an early day at school or the office, going home, cheering on your favorite team, and filling out your bracket.

Now I'm sure right now many of you out there are wondering what's so good about the college basketball tournament anyway? Of all the sports to watch, why college basketball and why the NCAA tournament? Well, for one thing, it could be called the best championship and playoff system in sports out there. With exciting, fast-paced, games mostly played at under two hours, a huge field where everyone has a chance at that title, and with only three short weeks separating the first game of the tournament and the championship, the NCAA tournament instantly draws in anyone from the casual viewer to the self-proclaimed bracket prophet.

Other playoff systems, like Major League Baseball or the NFL, only include a few teams, the best of the best, and even then with all of the waiting between games and multigame matchups, the separation of opening round and championship is immense compared to that of college basketball.

Also, with a field of 65 teams every year, every school from the powerhouse down to the lowly 16 seed, gets a chance to cut down the nets of that final game and propel themselves into basketball glory.

Perhaps even better than the short amount of time the tourney takes or the sheer amount of teams in it, is the fact that the brackets of the tournament are perfect. No other system can give so many teams a chance in so little time. If you win, you advance. If you lose, you're out. Simple as that. Each team keeps meeting the other advancing teams until the field is trimmed down to one champion. No debate left in the end, no messy arguments about who should have had the bye week or the wild card, just one team that's the best in their sport for that particular year.

And that's why every March, you'll see me and millions of other sports fans around the country catching the March Madness bug, cheering on the underdogs, watching our favorite teams religiously, and watching as the third month of the year speeds away with the ferocity of a lion.

Mike Wach is a senior at St. Francis.

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