While it may not be a hot commodity up here in frosty Canada, the NCAA basketball tournament has snowballed into a cultural phenomenon in the United States. Everything starts with two weeks of media attention before the actual tournament where the divisional tournament winners are sorted out and seeded on a day called “Selection Sunday.” While that may sound like something out of the Old Testament, it’s the day when the bracket for the NCAA March Madness tournament is chosen and debated, before the chaos erupts. For two weeks, 65 schools will have Americans wondering; Kobe who?
During the tournament, “the line” is perhaps the most watched statistic before the game starts. Vegas will tell you whom they think will win, but if you think you know better, it certainly won’t come cheap. The first day of the March Madness tournament is the most bet-on day in sports. Not the World Cup, not the World Series, not even the Super Bowl. Why? No one can resist the urge to drop a few bucks on the underdog. This frenzy of wagering culminates into millions of Americans watching every heart-pounding finish to see if a 16th-seed can knock off a first.
Just as we Canadians gather at a bar on a Saturday night to watch the Hockey Night in Canada double-header, the first day of the NCAA tournament causes the same effect in the States. A former columnist for Sports Illustrated, Steve Rushin used to write a yearly column where he would go to a local bar, find a stool and throw back a few brews, watching the entire first day of the tournament unfold. During his “work,” Rushin would talk to people from all walks of life, and supporters of all different schools. This is the essence of the tournament, enjoying every game and every outcome, letting the madness consume you for hours, or even days.
You know you have a cultural phenomenon when it begins to coin its own terminology. Here are some terms for your laymen dictionary.
Bracketology: The process of filling out the entire tournament bracket with your projected winners with the all-important Final Four, and the big national victor.
Websites like CBS.com allow you to create your own brackets on their site. Once that is done, they update your bracket with the real outcomes. This lends a new aspect to the tournament, as you get to see how many you get right, and how many your buddies get wrong.
Bracketology has come to such a stage that it has its own rules. Here are a few from sportsline’s website. Anyone making a bracket for a pool-free tips.
No number 16-seed has ever beaten a No. 1, so just forget about those games altogether and advance the number-ones on to the second round.
Don’t go putting all your number-one seeds in the Final Four. They might be the best teams on paper, but since 1979, it has never happened. The closest it ever came was in 1993, when three number-ones and a two-seed made it.
If there is ever a point when a 12-seed plays a fifth-seed, the twelfth tends to prevail.
Look for teams that have a veteran starting five.
Watch out for injuries. If a team’s star has a serious injury, it would be wise to keep that team out of the Final Four.
Have fun. This is the NCAA Tournament! The greatest sporting event in the history of sports! (Told you Americans love it.)
So as the tournament begins its madness on March 15, tap into that culture and let the madness overtake you. You never know for sure what will happen-or in Steve Rushin’s case, who you will meet.
