What is the best event in the sports world today?
That’s right. You guessed it – the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Simmer down now, football fans. I’m sorry. The Super Bowl comes in second place in this contest.
But how could this be when so many people watch the Super Bowl?
I’m here to tell you.
The NCAA tournament creates more excitement than the Super Bowl.
It’s not called March Madness (or as I like to say: Middle of March Through the First Week of April Madness) for nothing.
Oh yeah, and the Final Four is right here in New Orleans this year. The excitement is escalating higher than Mount Everest. I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about being in the Dome on Monday night.
For the Super Bowl, you pay your office pool money and randomly get two numbers.
How exciting!
In the NCAA tournament, you control your own destiny for the pool by selecting the teams you think will win for each round, all the way down to the Final Four.
Figuring out how to fill out their brackets makes fans feel like part of the action, like one can change the outcome by picking his team to win it all.
But deciding which team to select in, say, an 8-9 match-up, can spark more research than that senior thesis.
You need to know the following: How did the teams finish the season? Do they match up well with the opposition? Do they have the experience factor?
The Super Bowl usually has as much drama as a Paulie Shore movie.
The NCAA, however, tournament has more drama than “The Young and the Restless.”
Countless games each year come down to one player making a shot (or not making one, as it were) as the buzzer sounds.
The NCAA tournament has a way of unveiling talented players who normally would never be found.
Take Darnell Archey of Butler.
Before the tournament this year, no one outside of Indianapolis had ever heard of him.
Then he sank eight threes to help beat fourth-seeded Louisville and put his team in the Sweet 16.
Which brings me to the true beauty of the tournament – upsets.
America loves to see an underdog triumph over the favorite. And that happens every year in the tournament, as some Goliath falls early from the wrath of David’s stone.
And this year the Final Four features only one team that was the top seed in its bracket.
For three weeks and 63 games (well, now 64 when you count that lame play-in game), viewers get to watch unpaid athletes leave their hearts on the floor.
The Super Bowl could only wish to have half the passion that is on display during the tournament.
Plus, they have cool names for the rounds: Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four.
And this season the Final Four, which is in always-magical New Orleans, is more wide open than a barn door.
Marquette, a Conference USA team, is a Jesuit university, and hey, we have a building right here on our little campus named after them.
Texas has Mr. Unselfish, T.J. Ford, as its leader. In a sports world where it’s me-me-me, Ford looks to pass the ball first – an unheard of concept!
Then, Kansas coach Roy Williams and Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim are sentimental favorites to win a national championship.
Both are well-respected in the coaching community but have never won the big game – although Boeheim was a “Smart” shot away in 1987.
Don’t forget (or if you have, let me remind you) that the last three times the championship game was played in the Superdome, memorable finishes occurred.
Who could forget Michael Jordan nailing the winning jump shot as a freshman in 1982?
Or Keith Smart’s jumper with time running out to give Indiana the title in ’87?
Or Chris Webber calling timeout when his team had none left at the end of the game in ’93?
With all that passion, drama and excitement, how could anything come close to comparing to the greatness that is the NCAA tournament?
