March is the Best Month of the Year Outside of Football Season
I love March! When football season is over, I find myself disappointed and looking for something to occupy my sports appetite. I only have a few weeks in February that are "sports stagnant", but then college basketball starts heating up, not to mention free agency in NFL.
Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. There's nothing better than leaves changing colors, great weather, and football. But March brings its own special uniqueness with the college basketball conference championships, and of course the ultimate tournament to decide the National Champion. The NBA doesn't really offer team basketball anymore, but college basketball is real. It's five young men playing as a team with passion and heart. There's no money involved, there's no endorsement deals, just good technical basketball.
There's nothing like printing out your bracket, picking your winners, and comparing your picks with your buddies. Then standing around the water cooler at the office the next day talking about how half of your final four teams were upset in the first round of the tournament. People that aren't even basketball fans get excited about filling out their brackets, like girl friends hoping to earn bragging rights over their boy friend for picking more games correctly. Everyone loves to get in on the action. Teachers turn on the TV's in classrooms for the only time all year to let the kids experience the action. Bosses wheel TV's into offices and warehouses to allow employees to catch games while they're working. For four weeks the world stands still as we all tune in to watch colleges that we've never heard of play powerhouse clubs like Duke and North Carolina. Did anyone know where Davidson was before Curry led them on their special run a few years ago? Or how about George Mason or Virginia Commonwealth?
What's better than turning on the TV and hearing Dick Vitale scream "It's Awesome Baby!"? Yes, college basketball in March is a special time for everyone. This year we've seen some upsets already with Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Kansas all losing before reaching the finals in their respective conferences. I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the championships play out and how the seeding will be determined. I currently have Michigan State, Syracuse, Kentucky, and North Carolina as my one seeds, but that could change depending on how the conference championships end up. In any event, I'm waiting and eager for the bracket to come out so I can do what millions of other Americans will be doing; hoping to pick a perfect bracket.