An Ode to March Madness: Why the NCAA Tournament Is So Fun

Put on your shoes, it's time to dance.

Everyone loves this time of year, as winter turns to spring and we all indulge ourselves in the madness that is the NCAA Tournament.

This is the month when your television is primarily on CBS as you get your first glance at the bracket. You flip over to ESPN to get information on what teams to pick. You hear Dick Vitale sing the praises of North Carolina and Duke. You hear other analysts making ridiculous picks and you laugh at their stupidity.

And of course you watch the show in its entirety because you want to win your pool.

Or...

You wake up on Monday morning and open up the sports section of the New York Times and realize that there is a bracket to be filled out and you make picks based on team names and “eeny-meenie-miny-mo.”

Regardless of whether you follow college basketball religiously or only watch the games during March, you fill out a bracket and you join a pool. You don't have to know anything about college basketball to have a shot—and even the most casual fan can enjoy every single tourney game.

In fact, for the next few weeks, from Thursday to Sunday, you don't even need your clicker, because you'll be glued to CBS watching each and every one of your picks.

That is why we all love the NCAA Tournament: Every game matters, and every team has a story. In the spirit of the season, here are the best things about “March Madness”...

5. Filling out your bracket

It doesn’t matter if you know anything about any of the teams or if you are a college basketball guru—everyone knows that if one pick goes wrong you can lose your pool instantly. This is why picking teams is so important.

If you're a big-time college basketball fan and you watch the ESPN constantly, you often hear picks from analysts that make you second-guess yourself. Is Memphis really that good? Do I really want UCLA winning it all?

These questions always arise for the educated fan—but in the end, you go with your gut, and that is what makes it so satisfactory when you win your pool.

If you're someone who knows nothing about college basketball, on the other hand, you look up and down the bracket and pick teams based on how the names of the teams sound.

Oral Roberts sounds like a cool school—I guess I’ll pick them. I think Siena sounds pretty neat too, so I got to pick them as well.

No matter how learned you are on the subject of college basketball, you have a chance to win your pool, and that's all that matters.

4. Watching the early round games

Whether you are a high school student bringing in a portable TV to class, or a college student cutting classes to stay in your room to watch, or an adult slacking off at work and watching online...you are watching.

This is because you know that at any point, your team can lose. You have to watch every game, and even if you don't care that much about your bracket, you still have to admire how many games come down to final possessions and last-second shots.

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