If you are experiencing the following symptoms—filling out a million different brackets, scheduling your day around basketball games, cheering for colleges you have never heard of, and/or talking about the three-point line more than the unemployment line—don’t worry about making an appointment to see a doctor. What you are suffering from is March Madness, an illness that affects millions of sports fans every year. Once the brackets are set, the symptoms begin to arise and affect basketball fans for three weeks.
What causes this madness? Why are these three weeks so special? March Madness is a time for storybook endings, underdog triumphs, and unexpected geography quizzes. The buzzer-beaters, endless three-point shooting, and superb announcing of the games add to the mania and create an indescribable aura that sports fans can’t help but fall in love with. The NCAA tournament is the only time small schools like Butler and Virginia Commonwealth University can play on the same court as historic basketball giants Duke and North Carolina. The joy of March Madness comes from these small schools’ ability to slay the giants and captivate the nation.
The love of college basketball during this time can’t be quantified by basic mathematics or science, although college basketball fanatics major in a new kind of science—bracketology. This field of study involves deciding what teams will play each other in the NCAA tournament, as well as predicting who will win the tournament when filling out a bracket. Filling out a bracket may be the most enjoyable test that anyone will take in his or her life, and it is nearly impossible to get 100% or even 90%. March Madness can get so outrageous that people are thrilled if they predict 50% of the games correctly!
When filling out a bracket, keep these thoughts in mind: a 16 seed has never beaten a 1 seed, at least one 12 seed almost always beats a 5 seed, it is rare that all four 1 seeds make it to the Final Four, and a small school has made it to the Final Four three of the past five years. These hints may help in obtaining higher than the coveted 50% score.
So study up for the bracketology exam and fill out the bracket. Get ready for another March full of madness and endless euphoria. This illness is contagious and unlike the flu is one you want to catch.