March and Early April are Madness… But That’s Okay!

The cultural significance of basketball’s most prestigious tournament

By: Matthew Zeichert

If you have a pulse, you have probably been asked if you “filled out a bracket” at some point during mid-March. If you are confused by this question because you are not familiar with March Madness, consider yourself lucky—sports fans are born with the tendency to be overly chatty about sports with people who couldn’t care less. Regardless of your familiarity with the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, there is no denying that the games played by 68 teams between March 15 and April 4 are unlike anything else in the wide world of sports. But as is the case with many things in life, March Madness is more than meets the eye. The real magic of the NCAA tourney is how it makes the United States of America a bit more united for a brief moment in time. 

Since 1939, March Madness has undergone numerous changes to become the cultural phenomenon that it is today. Nowadays the tournament kicks off with four games, known as “play-in games,” in which eight teams from various colleges and universities play at basketball stadiums far from their respective campuses with one thing in mind: win and you’re in. The four teams that emerge victorious from the play-in games are then given 11, 12, or 16 “seeds” depending on how well they played during the regular season, with 1 being the best and 16 being the worst. In the round of 64 teams, the tournament consists of four quadrants with 16 teams each. 

Here’s where the word madness comes into play. With so many games, it is virtually guaranteed that a few teams with mediocre regular season statistics will score more points than their highly praised opponents. In the past, small schools like Florida Gulf Coast University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Lehigh University have assumed Davidian roles when facing off against the Goliath-like basketball programs of Duke, Georgetown, and Virginia. Following the round of 64 is the round of 32, then the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, and eventually the NCAA Championship. 

With so many schools taking part in “the big dance” over the years, countless basketball legends have been born. Hall of Famers like Lew Alcindor (AKA Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton of the UCLA Bruins became famous after winning the tournament. The battle between Larry “Legend” Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores and Irvin “Magic” Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans also drew viewers like a moth to a flame. Even the hateable Christian Laettner of the infamous Coach K’s Duke Blue Devils became an overnight sensation simply because Americans felt inclined to tune in to the NCAA tourney. Herein lies the lifeblood of the NCAA tournament: viewership.

Without fans of college basketball, the NCAA tournament would not exist. This may seem like a hot take, but it is based on fact. In 2020, when the organizers of March Madness realized that they could not in good conscience have a tournament with sold out crowds due to the spread of COVID-19, they canceled it. A year later, when the COVID-19 was less of an issue due to the emergency authorization of three vaccines, the stadium could only host crowds of 25% capacity. Most, if not all, basketball fans agree that it just didn’t have the same allure as previous tournaments. This year, we were fortunate enough to have sold-out crowds at games across the country, and fans such as myself were elated. 

This feeling of elation transcends basketball. As most sports fans know, sports serve as a reprieve from the woes of daily life. When watching the tournament, fans are rewarded with numerous games of an hour or so of unbridled excitement. Sure, the responsibilities and burdens that we are all subjected to will meet us again after the final buzzer, but they all fade away for a brief moment while the game is on. Yet March Madness is more than just enjoying the game. It boils down to community. The tournament is like a miniature utopia, with conferences as the cities, teams as the bustling streets, and fans to roam around at their leisure to share in the collective love of the basketball madness that occurs over the month of March.