If you’re a fan of college basketball, chances are you’ve been waiting for this month to come for a long time. And if you’re not a fan, you still might be one of the millions who tunes in to follow the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament.
The widespread popularity of March Madness has grown so rapidly over the years in large part due to the explosion of social media. This practice of printing out the 64-team tournament and penciling in your projected winners — or completing it all online — has become quite the fad. I think the concept of sharing predictions with others and tweeting about the crazy game action as it unfolds has sucked in the most casual observers.
Why is it called March Madness? Simply put, it’s craziness. There are several games going on at once and most of them come down to the final few minutes, if not the final play of the game. Upsets — where a lower-seeded team will unexpectedly beat a higher-seeded one — often run rampant and leave fans in shock.
I typically fill out at least one bracket every year just for the fun of it, even though my prognostication skills aren’t anything to brag about. If you’ve never tried it before, you should. Most office pools are won by these casual observers who don’t really pay much attention to what goes on. You could be in for some big bucks!
So, get ready for a couple weeks of hearing the most popular question often used in small talk during the month of March.
“How’s your bracket?”
