March Madness

March Madness is here!  For my money it's one of the best events in sports.  64 teams vieing for the top spot.  Single elimination.  Anything can happen.  Cinderella teams (see Florida Gulf Coast University) spark the imagination of all who watch.  Like many, I created my picks in one of the many bracket contests.  Unfortunately, and not surprisingly, I didn't get very far.  Only good news is that I picked Indiana to go all the way.  Some of my other choices...not so good.  Georgetown...gone.  Gonzaga...gone.  My home team SDSU Aztecs...gone (embarrassed by this little team in Florida no one has ever heard of called Florida Gulf Coast University).  Oh well, it's not earth shattering.  But it sure is fun.

If you aren't attuned to the tournament and want to get a feel for it, look on ESPN for a showing of one of their 30 for 30 series episode "Survive and Advance".   It is well worth a few hours.  It's the story of Jim Valvano and the 1983 North Carolina State NCAA championship run.  It is very, very good.  And very inspiring!

 

One thing I can't figure out is why the NCAA doesn't turn to a similar format for football.  It makes no sense.  Oh, I know all the arguments.  Different sport.  Different culture.  Different time of year.  Football can't be decided in a tournament.  I think it's all BS.  Think of all the stupid stuff that happens around the BCS football national championship.  It's never clean.  There is always controversy.  If they came up with a tournament format, two things would happen.  They would have an undisputed national champion in football.  And they'd have the most popular, most watched sports event in the country!