NCAA Tournament From A Casual Sports Fan

By Andrew Tyahla on March 30, 2015

The NCAA Tournament is one of the biggest sporting events in America. Every March, basketball teams from 64 different colleges compete for the title of NCAA Champion.

For sports fans, it is a month of entertainment, good-natured competition and perhaps no shortage of frustration.

image via Jeepz72 on flickr.com

Some of the most dedicated fill out their own brackets in hopes of predicting the outcome of the whole thing. In my opinion, filling out brackets is a bit too much of a hassle to be worth it. Basketball is a very unpredictable game. Thus, games can be prone to upsets.

While there may be some teams who have an advantage over the other, the outcome can also be different from what is anticipated. As a result, the entire NCAA Tournament could end differently. As such, a single game can ruin one’s bracket.

Personally, I have tried filling out brackets in the past, but I have never accurately predicted the champion. The first time I took a lot of time to research the competition before filling out my anticipated NCAA Tournament bracket. It held up for a few games, but it did not last beyond the round of 64.

Another time, I did not pay as much attention to the teams in the tournament so some of my picks were a bit random. This time, the bracket was invalidated after one game. Ever since then, I have never filled out a bracket.

The NCAA Tournament is beneficial to the the schools beyond their athletic departments. It helps give each of the schools exposure. The televised games give a prime opportunity for the colleges to run ads to attract potential students. After all, they have the nation’s attention, so now everyone can see it.

But it seems as though the most prestigious schools are always the ones whose teams make it into the tournament to begin with. There are those such as Duke who are regulars but other teams are lucky to enter the tournament even once.

In fact, according to GoSoutheast.com, the Southeast Missouri Redhawks did not qualify for a tournament until 2000, and even then they did not make it past the first round.

All in all, the NCAA Tournament does not do much for me. I am the kind of guy who can enjoy a sporting event and not get upset over the outcome. While it would be amazing if your Alma mater won the whole tournament, just qualifying is an honor.

Follow Uloop

Apply to Write for Uloop News

Join the Uloop News Team

Discuss This Article

Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly

Back to Top

Log In

Contact Us

Upload An Image

Please select an image to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format
OR
Provide URL where image can be downloaded
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format

By clicking this button,
you agree to the terms of use

By clicking "Create Alert" I agree to the Uloop Terms of Use.

Image not available.

Add a Photo

Please select a photo to upload
Note: must be in .png, .gif or .jpg format