| March Madness |
24 March 2003
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NCAA March Madness Arrives, Junk Sports Season Ends
The national college basketball tournaments have arrived, and after several weeks of hoping that a there might be a decent soccer game on one of the more obscure sports networks on the satellite system, one's animosity toward college athletes and athletics abates. The Road to the Final Four is mostly marketing tripe, but the entertainment value of the tournament is world class.
There is something to be said for a national championship that is not voted on by journalists. College football will forever suffer from this nonsense until the two best teams play for the title. The College World Series does this, but coming as it does when major league baseball is hitting its stride, it loses something of its impact. The NCAA Basketball Tournament has only the regular NHL and NBA seasons for competition, and they are not yet to the interesting, pre-play-off drives.
Moreover, the Arizona-Gonzaga game that went into double over-time Saturday night is a perfect example of why the game is played. Two teams in an all-or-nothing match that is hotly played, tied at the end of regulation, reasonably clean, and with a bit of a David against Goliath element. It is a truism that the last two minutes of a basketball game are the most exciting. In this match up, the fans got those minutes three times.
In the end, the NCAA tournament, along with the NIT (a second-tier event with the same premise), rescues the sports fan from the depths of February, provides the office with a pool more interesting than the Super Bowl, and shows off the NBA's minor leagues to great effect. If only the physics programs got the same attention.