It wouldn’t be March Madness without the Madness

For the majority of collegiate sports, tournaments are usually not taken into much consideration by fans unless the team is nationally ranked. But when March comes around evey year, collegiate fans go to the extremes while rooting for their team to win the national championship. Many people would argue that these fans are wasting time, but they have more reason to cheer than most people know.

March Madness, formally known as the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Championship, is not just another chance for a school to win a trophy—it’s a time when fans can toe the limits of sanity while showing school spirit without being called crazy. Not only is this excitement-packed tournament necessary to determine who are the national champions, but it is also necessary for inciting support for college sports, especially among students of competitive universities.

Despite the many fans that consider March Madness the promised land, there are still many people out there who believe it is a waste of time, and that betting on amateur teams are both a waste of money and time. The utopia of college life does not last forever, so students should have fun with it while they can, and for many schools out there, it is a priviledge to play in March Madness and have a chance at the national championship.

Not only does the tournament provide an outlet for spirited college students to show their school pride, but also for some adults to earn money by betting on their favorable teams. Betting on certain teams not only can help one get some extra money, but it also brings along some friendly competition and bragging rights over opposing schools. Betting for certain teams should not be frowned upon, as many people consider it to be gambling, but it is just some friendly camaraderie.

When betting on normal basketball games, there is usually one team that is predicted to defeat the underdog, and usually does. But in March Madness, those laws of basketball rarely apply. Does Murray State’s 66-65 win over Vanderbilt ring a bell or Northern Iowa’s memorable upset over No.1 Kansas? That is one of the most exciting parts of March Madness, the fact that any team can win at any time in March is what makes betting on teams more competitive and spiriting, since both sides have an equal chance of winning.

There is a reason the tournament is referred to as March Madness—it is simply uncontrollable, unpredictable madness. Many high school students may think of the festivities as a joke, but who knows? Four years from now, those same students may be wearing the same color as the rest of the students in their school’s arena or even filling out a March Madness bracket of their own.