Dan Wetzel has this terrific column on the NCAA tournament and how March Madness will cost companies millions of dollars in lost productivity as workers try to sneak a peak at their favorite schools.
I confess that the first two days of the NCAA tournament are my favorite sports events, even more than the Super Bowl or the World Series. I love the fact that obscure schools get television time along with the powerhouses and for a couple of days, those schools need to be reckoned with.
The beauty is in the diversity of the participants. The schools come in all shapes and sizes, from 30 different states and the District of Columbia. This year’s field includes giant public schools and little private ones; bastions of liberalism and conservative, religious institutions. They come from small towns (Rock Hill, Starkville, Emmitsburg) and giant cities (Los Angeles, Washington, Miami).
It’s a tournament where there is a team from Manhattan, Kan., but not Manhattan, N.Y. – the Little Apple one upping the Big Apple. Where terms such as Hoyas, Tar Heels and Hoosiers make sense and it’s great to be a Boilermaker, a Sooner or a Cardinal.
Because of America’s obsession with underdogs and upsets, it is the time of year we gladly become Delta Devils and Toreros; when you can be a South Alabama fan even if you thought all of Alabama was south.
This is where atheists cheer for Oral Roberts, where everyone loves the Drake (or hates the Drake, if they screw up your office pool) and you might cheer for Kent State, even if you have no idea who Kent is or when exactly we named a state after him. It’s an event so bizarre that a place such as Kansas, generally congenial, friendly, harmless Kansas, is to be feared.
I must confess that, this year, I have a vested interest in that David-vs.-Goliath analogy. My alma mater, the University of Texas at Arlington, is making its first appearance in the tournament. Proud? You bet!
Of course, as Wetzel points out, the tournament isn't just about the amusing spectacle of Portland State beating Kansas. It's also about the gambling.
What the NCAA never wants to admit is that much of the tournament’s popularity is due to gambling and not just in legal Las Vegas sports books that are overloaded this weekend. It’s the office pools that serve as a great equalizer when Maria from human resources gets the better of all those CSTV junkies because her dominant state flower formula magically predicts the 12-over-5 upsets.
We illegally wager the GNP of a small country on this tournament. But no one ever seems to do anything about it, probably because at this very moment inside the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, home of the FBI itself, a bracket is getting passed around.
And if Belmont gets up on Duke or Austin Peay puts a scare into Texas you can bet there will be muffled cheers from their federal cubicles just like in every other office.
When I worked at the paper, we had 2 different pools. There was the sophisticated pool, where wannabe experts picked their brackets and winners were determined by some mathematical computation using skills most reporters claim not to have.
Then there was the other pool, which was $1 a pick, and everybody drew names from a hat. The randomness of your pick, and the fact that people like me had the same chance as the sports reporters who covered the teams, was the greatest appeal to me.
Because the truth is, I never watch college basketball except during the tournament. Like a lot of sports that I would call "amusing," I only watch the "important" events. Wimbledon. The Kentucky Derby. The Super Bowl. That sort of stuff.
None of that will stop me from cheering for my Mavericks tomorrow, though. Mine might be the cheers or groans one hears from the cubicle.
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