It’s called March Madness for a reason. 68 teams play 67 games for one title over the span of two weeks. It might as well be called Basketball Heaven instead of March Madness. But madness it is, nevertheless.
There will be buzzer beaters. There will be upsets. There will be heartbreak. There will be jubilation. There will be tears of joy and tears of agony. No matter the odds, no one will ever have the capacity to predict what will happen in one of the most anticipated tournaments of the year.
Last year the best team in the country, Purdue, lost to the worst team admitted to the tournament, Fairleigh Dickinson. No one had ever heard of this Fairleigh Dickinson team; they weren’t even supposed to make it, but due to regulations, the team from their conference that was supposed to go couldn’t. Fairleigh Dickinson stunned Purdue, something that surprised many, busting so many brackets before the tournament had time to leave round one.
It’s the structure of March Madness that makes the event so appealing to fans. It’s the only time of the year, the only sporting event for that matter, where one can watch some of the sport’s most notoriously dominant bluebloods lose to teams no one ever knew existed.
True college basketball fans will never forget when Wichita State, a 9-seed in 2013, cruised their way to a final four. In that same tournament, a 15-seeded FGCU made their first tournament appearance and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Let us never forget how wild a year 2018 was: one of the maddest ever. Loyola Chicago made a run all the way to the final four as an 11-seed. That same year, a 16-seed UMBC defeated the best team in the tournament by an astounding 20 points in the first round, the first time such a victory had ever occurred.
Those were all examples of underdogs fighting their way to victory, but one that may be even more ‘mad’ is the most recent, when the Peacocks secured a record win. In 2022, a 15-seed team from Saint Peter’s University made it to the elite eight. The Peacocks, an underdog team, were the first 15-seed to do so in the history of the madness.
No one can predict what will happen in all the madness, which adds to its charm for fans. The suspension of the unpredictability of the games, even when one creates a calculated bracket, keeps the enthusiasm and suspense high for all. Even the best sports analysts in the world cannot adequately predict the outcome of this tournament.
You just get to sit back, enjoy the ride, and see where it takes you.
This year will provide all the madness one could ever ask for, and maybe a new underdog or two will secure a win. The most competitive basketball of the year, the maddest basketball of all time — enjoy the electricity that is March Madness.
