| 15 March 2010
Selection Sunday; one of the most uneventful, but exciting days of the sports year. It came and went just as it does every year.
Once the brackets are released we see debates on seeding, on easiest regional, which teams shouldn't have made it, what team should have made it, should the field be increased, what upsets will happen, what are the most intriguing match ups; all these questions are debated over and over again and again until finally we get the answer to none of them.
That's what is so great about March Madness; anyone can debate. Anyone can make an opinion, and no matter how far off based it is, it still seems legitimate due to the uncertainty that revolves around the greatest tournament in all of sports. We have a million and one ESPN analysts debating every single match up like they know what is going to happen more than anyone else. This is the ridiculous nature of March Madness; everyone thinks they know all, mostly none of us know anything.
We assume we got the system down. Always pick a couple #1's to make it to the final four, have a #12 over #5 upset in there somewhere and just pick a few more upsets along the way; that's all it takes to win the bracket. Truth be told, the winner of the bracket is usually someone who hasn't watched a second of college basketball all year.
Everyone enjoys March Madness for a few reasons. A 65 team tournament that is tough to make and tougher to win. Being able to gamble and watching your chances increase or decrease based on 63 games over a three week span, and lastly everyone enjoys an underdog.
March Madness is all about the underdog. There's more to it though then just the higher seeded team beating a lower seeded team. March Madness showcases that any underdog can prevail by utilizing the magical piece of paper known as The Bracket. The bracket allows people who have no basketball knowledge to participate in a gamble every year that brings people together in a different way than anything else in the world.
Walk into any public place during March Madness, bust out your bracket, and within five minutes you'll have someone striking up a conversation with you. It doesn't matter if you haven't seen any basketball, care about basketball, participate in basketball, or you are a diehard basketball fan; anyone can win the bracket. Is there anything else in sports that anyone can think of that will captivate and keep people wanting to watch a sport for three consecutive weeks based on a piece of paper?
I know most of you are like me, we think we got the bracket down this year and we understand how to win it. Most likely the winner of the bracket will be someone who has no knowledge and randomly picked the teams. I think everyone has been in a bracket where the winner was a girl who picked the teams based on team name or jersey color. That's what the bracket is all about.
The bracket is all about the underdog. Not just the ones participating against top seeded teams, but the underdogs that participate in brackets across the country. It's about giving everyone a shot at winning and making us believe in something that we thought could never happen. That's what March Madness is about and that's what the bracket is about.
Enjoy the madness!
If you, your friends, your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, or your brother-in-law's nephew's best friend's cousin's step-sister would like to participate in a free bracket challenge to win prizes then check out the bracket challenge below:
Thunder Treats & Favre Dollar Footlongs Bracket Challenge
Invitation Link (or click image): You are invited!
Prizes:
3rd Place: Your very own Thunder Treats T Shirt
2nd Place: Your very own Favre Dollar Footlongs T Shirt PLUS a $15 Gift Card to Best Buy
1st Place: Your very own Thunder Treats AND Favre Dollar Footlongs T Shirts PLUS a $25 Gift Card to Best Buy
