There is nothing better than the day you become filled with hope as you put the winner down in your bracket for March Madness. Unfortunately for me this year, ESPN would not let me sign in, so I did not end up submitting my bracket. But for everyone who is interested, I had Wisconsin winning. That was a big mistake.
March Madness truly is an interesting period for sports fans. I never, out of my own free will, decide to watch a basketball game unless it is for the tournament. With that being said, I do not ultimately care about who wins the tournament. Coming from Washington state, the world of college sports is almost irrelevant. Despite this, everyone comes together for March Madness.
Who doesn’t love making a bracket? The answer should be, “no one.” It is a time to test your luck and have high hopes until the number-15 seed makes it to the sweet 16 (Thank you, Oral Roberts). Everyone knows their bracket will not be perfect, but that is what makes it fun. Someone could have the best bracket, and usually it is not because of the best-seeded teams winning. Making a bracket involves randomly calling upsets. It is not every day a number-13 seed beats a number-four seed. It does happen, though, and when it does, the brackets go wild. When you lose a final four member after the first round, well, you start hoping for next year.
This year has been one of the best years yet for March Madness; 5.875 is the magic number, which is the highest seeding of the sweet 16 yet for the NCAA tournament. Sports fanatics know exactly what that means: upset galore. Oral Roberts University, University of California Los Angeles, Oregon State University and Syracuse University: I thank you for making this possible and for ruining many of the brackets. Despite only half of them making it to the elite eight, their contributions will be remembered. Upsets make sports that much more enjoyable. In 2018 when number 16 University of Maryland, Baltimore beat number one Virginia in the first round, the nation was in shambles. About a quarter of the brackets were doomed already. It was chaos, but more importantly, it was history. That was the only time a 16-seed beat a one-seed, and who knows when it will happen again?
As a sports fan, March Madness unites. From the soccer fans, to the basketball fans and even ultimate frisbee fans, there is room for your bracket. The person who follows basketball religiously has just as good of a chance making a perfect bracket as someone who has never touched a basketball in their life. If sports were perfect and the number-one seed always won, where would the fun be? The spice of the upsets makes it exciting for sports fans and even some of the non-sports fans.
For those wanting to achieve the perfect bracket, flipping a coin may be a good way to do it. As for myself, I pick a random team seeded between three and 12 and say, “There are your winners.” While it used to always be Duke, there was a need for change as they cannot win it every year. For this year, it was Wisconsin, and, well, I am glad ESPN did not let me submit my bracket.
