I Love March Madness. But...
Ink companies rejoice as dusty printers in offices across the country whir back to life. The desk jockeys shuffle in and pick up their warm, fresh-pressed brackets off the tray. Birds are chirping. Jon Rothstein is tweeting. The water cooler heroes are chattering. It's March baby.
Don't get me wrong, March Madness is the most magical postseason in all of sports. Mediocre seasons can become historic and historic seasons can become mediocre, midmajors get their shot against the big dogs, and viewers are rewarded with countless matchups between high-flying teams full of five stars.
What's not to love?
In the beauty lies the issue. Mediocre seasons can become historic and historic seasons can become mediocre. As the Ox has discussed previously, the purpose of the playoffs of any sports league should be to determine a true champion. In order to do so with any consistency, two things need to be true.
- Parity between the teams competing for the trophy.
- The regular season needs to matter.
Regular season games certainly matter to an extent, but this continues to erode as the tournament keeps expanding. The bubble in its current state is far too wide. The fact that there was even a discussion of extending an invite to 17-16 Auburn is quite frankly embarrassing. If we're to pretend that these teams are competing at the same Division I level why is there even a debate around whether 31-1 Miami of Ohio should make it? An undefeated regular season is one of the most impressive feats in sports and the discourse around this team was that they didn't earn it? Ridiculous. If the goal of the tournament is to determine a champion, admittance should be based solely off of wins and losses. Nothing else. Don't like that? Then shrink the tournament and shrink the pool of possible participants.
Does anyone truly believe that UMBC was better than Virginia? Or that 2024 NC State and DJ Burns were one of the four best teams in the country? Absolutely not. So why do we even bother going through the exercise of letting them take up a spot of a more deserving team just so they can inevitably get beaten by one of the legitimately good teams?
Because it fucking rocks that's why. Every fanbase has hope and by nature of how basketball works major upsets are bound to happen. This is so fun to watch and it keeps you on the edge of your seat from first tip to the One Shining Moment montage.
Embrace the Madness
I know what you're thinking.
"Okay Ox, you keep on complaining but admit it's awesome at the same time. You can't have your cake and eat it too."
I do have one tangible takeaway for college basketball fans. Stop putting so much weight into tournament outcomes. This thing is a crapshoot and our pea-sized human brains love to jump to conclusions off of a single game. An early March exit does NOT erase a successful season and an unexpected deep March run does NOT automatically make you better than the teams that didn't. It's okay to admit you got lucky. Embrace the madness, don't let it consume you.
-ox
Photo Credit: [Steven Senne/AP]