The “big dance” lets college teams bust a move, strut their stuff
Tim Doty
– Copy Editor –
One of the biggest spectacles in college, and perhaps all, sports begins on March 15. It is then that the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament starts. For the first time in its history, the brackets have been expanded to 68 teams rather than the usual 64. This gives more teams a chance to win it all. Perhaps another “Cinderella” team will be in the form of a victor of one of these first four games. The first four games will take place March 15 through 16 in Dayton, Ohio.
The term “Cinderella story” along with “bracketology” seem almost synonymous with this annual tournament. “Bracketologists” could be defined as those who study and try to predict the winners of this tournament with devotion and nearly turn this into a science. A “Cinderella story” is a team that is usually lower seeded in the tournament that makes a run, and sometimes can win, the national championship.
Unlike its professional counterpart, the NBA playoffs, the March Madness tournament is not a series of seven games but rather a one-and-done system. Teams have 40 minutes to give it their all and determine if they move forward to their next opponent or head home for the summer. The last three games of the tournament, called the Final Four, seem to gather more attention than the actual championship game. It’s almost comparable to fans getting more excited about the conference championships in the NFL than the Super Bowl, or the league championships in major league baseball rather than the world series.
Since it is a college tournament, the entire school can get behind the team as the journey through the tournament. Students at universities, some of which start spring break next week, have the opportunity to watch their classmates play on a national spotlight. Teams that play on the west coast can finally show those on the east coast what they are made of. Teams in the Big XII can tango with teams in the Mountain West to see who is the best for ultimate bragging rights. Where the college football’s BCS fails, the NCAA tournament shines.
Staying with the theme of a national spotlight, another first is occurring in this year’s tournament. Every single game will be broadcast in its entirety, according to http://ncaa.com. This is made possible due to the collaborative efforts of CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV. CBS, normally the flagship station of the NCAA tournament, normally would have to only air parts of games in order to show all of them. With the help of the Ted Turner-owned networks, fans with cable or satellite can now see every game if their hearts so desire.
With four more teams and every game broadcast in its entirety, sufferers of March Madness now more than ever enjoy what may be the epitome of a postseason in sports.
