WHAT IS ‘MARCH MADNESS’?

What is it about men’s college basketball? Especially the NIT (National Invitation Tournament) and the NCAA (National Collegiae Athletic Association) tournaments.

March Madness 2013

We spend hours agonizing over what schools to pick, do we go for the long shot or pick the favorites. Some fans will use the school mascots as the deciding factor. What school’s mascot will win over the other school’s mascots? There are still others that will simply flip a coin, but no matter how it gets done, it seems that everyone had their bracket.

It starts with smaller tournaments all over the United States, each division only able to send it best college teams to the tournament. It all comes down to only 68 teams competing over a matter of just a few weeks starting in March, hence the term ‘March Madness’ and it doesn’t end until there is just one team left standing.

Can they get to the final 4

The winning college teams enter the NCAA tournament; the college teams that are the runners up enter the NIT tournament as their consolation prize. But it’s the NCAA tournament that will have people glued to their TV, radios and their computers.

Well over 3 million people signed on to ESPN’s March Madness to filled out their brackets, with many more just doing it for fun and not using ESPN at all. If you are not a basketball fan it would hard for you to imagine what all the fuss is about.

I joined in on the fun and picked most of the favorites to win and before the end of the tournament even got close, most of my brackets were a complete bust. However, while it lasted I was glued to the TV, watching and holding my breath as my teams either won or lost, enjoying every minute of it.

It wasn’t always like this, long before the idea of March Madness, there was still college basketball. I can remember watching college basketball long before the notion of bracketing was even born. In fact, I am not sure when the idea of using bracketology sprung up. It probably has something to do with our ‘social media’. Even the President of the United States filled out his bracket. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/03/20/president-obamas-bracket-2013-ncaa-mens-basketball-tournament.

All I know is that I was a UCLA fan back when John Wooden was their coach www.coachwooden.com and I am still a fan, although I do have a little to less to cheer about this past year and the year before that. I am hopeful that with the hiring of a new coach, he will be able to get past the first round in next year’s tournament http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_22925919/ucla-introduces-new-bruins-basketball-coach-steve-alford?source=rss

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Professional Baseball

But with the invention of the brackets, college basketball might be the new great American past time at least during March Madness. There has been quite a bit of news regarding the loss of production in the work force do to this madness for college basketball. Some employers have tried to embraced it and use it as a means to improve moral in the workplace, others just see it as a waste of time, their time and their time is money.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Sports/2012/0313/NCAA-Tournament-2012-means-distracted-workers.-What-s-an-employer-to-do

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2170-march-madness-work.html

I see no end to this phenomenon known as ‘march madness, as long as everyone loves a winner and these games are set at such a fast pace, what’s not to love. TV sponsors know this and have adjusted the showing of ‘March Madness’ to guarantee a large viewing audience. No longer does March Madness actually end in March but closer to mid-April, ensuring the games are mostly played over weekends thus a larger audience.

I have tossed out this year’s brackets and have shifted my sports interest back to baseball and regular
basketball. It was fun while it lasted and although I personal did not do well this year with my choices, I can’t wait until next year.

Diana Olmos
SportsTalk4Dummies.com