As the month of March progresses, we go from the weekend of St. Practice, which a pre celebration of the holiday Saint Patrick’s Day due to the holiday falling during our spring break, here at SUNY Cortland to a couple weeks long event which is what we call March Madness. March Madness is a couple week-long event that occurs within the NCAA for college basketball, specifically people investigate division 1 basketball and the colleges that are playing within these games for the next couple of weeks. There are also brackets that people use and make predictions about which college team will make it the furthest, making their brackets as they go and see if their predictions are accurate. The brackets are often split based on the region of the United States the colleges are in and slowly decrease in numbers, calling each round first and second rounds, the sweet sixteen, elite eight and the final four until there is finally a team that will take home the trophy for March Madness. So why is this couple week-long event in the month of March so important?
This couple weeklong event in March is so important within college culture and for many individuals who do not fall within that age bracket due to the extreme unpredictability and the drama that comes along with it. It follows along this organizational structure called “win or go home”, which means that any men or women’s college basketball team has the possibility of losing, which can foster intense, raw emotions amongst the people watching the games and causes tension between individuals. In some cases, certain college teams follow this specific storyline as the rounds progress called the “Cinderella story”. The Cinderella story is when a lesser-known school who was always underestimated by the public defeats the top tier basketball programs at the best universities for the sport itself, which allows for them to truly embody an underdog story, gaining significant amounts of respect from the viewers and NCAA.
Sometimes March Madness causes fans to have a love for the game on an emotional and personal level, especially when college alumni see their university playing in March Madness. They provide a deep sense of loyalty for their college teams, even if they do not entirely comprehend the sport of basketball, which is something that is never always prevalent within professional sports. March Madness also made bracket culture and betting extremely popular across the United States, where millions of people fill out brackets, betting on who is going to make it the farthest and win the event itself. Sometimes it is estimated that millions of Americans wager over $15.5 billion annually for their March Madness brackets due to the intensity it brings throughout the country. March Madness also provides significant economic impact for the United States, the tournament brings in a huge number of financial boosts to the cities that host each game for the different rounds. Due to high viewership and engagement, it gains billions in revenue for the NCAA organization itself, within the past eight years, the organization has gained $8.8 billion in revenue and with sponsorships along the way. With the popularity of this cultural phenomenon within America, it allows for the rise of future basketball stars to gain prominence of television, serving as a launch pad for these college players. Allowing to them to stand out to NBA team recruiters and to gain national attention before they consider going professional after playing at their respective colleges.
