Well, was it good for you? No, not THAT. What I write of is the first two days of March Madness, the best two consecutive days of sports viewing. On those days 64 college basketball teams play each other in a single elimination tournament that in three weeks from the start will result in the crowning of a national champion. This year those two days of wall-to-wall games were March 16-17, yesterday and today as I write this.
Now some will argue that a weekend of professional football playoffs in January is right up there for us couch potatoes. Nah, not even close. That is a mere handful of games and, if I failed to mention it, the Madness gives us 32 games over two blissful days. But it is more than merely a numbers game. A fair number of the games always seem to be exciting right up until the end.
After all, that is what gives the tournament the name March Madness. The tournament itself has been around forever; I recall attending the semi-finals and championship game over 50 years ago. Yes, I have been around a long time but can we not get into that just now? Anyhow, back then and for some time thereafter fewer teams participated and television coverage was less extensive. But along the way more and more of the games were exciting so fan appreciation grew as did the number of teams invited to participate . Naturally television said they wanted some of that and the combination of competitive games and increased exposure brought us to the March Madness we have today.
The popularity of the tournament is all the more remarkable because I believe the vast majority of us have no idea who is playing or can name any of the players on most of the teams. Heck, some of the colleges are a mystery as well. Because the best college players these days only stay in college for one season and then head to the pros only family, close friends and the most avid boosters know who plays for whom. Does not seem to matter because the sports fan will tune in, find a good game and commence searching for more of the same once that one is over. And that is easy to do with so many games; in fact ESPN, the self proclaimed “sports leader” but not one of the networks carry the games these days, will not even program against it. They have some popular sports talk shows during most weekdays but the cowards pull those shows on the first two days of the Madness because they think we only have eyes for the Madness. And are they ever right.
Long live the Madness!
