There’s a sporting event bigger than the Super Bowl. Madness you say? Yeah, March Madness.
I know what you’re going to say. You’ll point to the stats that prove that the Super Bowl is the more watched event. You’ll say that 114.4 million people can’t be wrong. They can be and they are.
I, as one of those 114.4 million people, accept the Super Bowl as the pinnacle of sports. There’s no singular game that is bigger.
However, March Madness includes more than sixty games that compete for America’s love. Those games, they reach more than 180 million people.
Think about it. The Super Bowl features two teams.
Last year, they were New England and Seattle. Two cities on complete opposite sides of the country. If we disregard the bandwagoners, which we should, only two cities really have a dog in the fight.
In the NCAA tournament, which consists of 68 teams, there are seven cities that have a dog in the fight—and 59 other cities that have a cat, humanoid or some other type of mascot.
Any team can win. Look at this year. After one round, we had six upsets, including a pair of three seeds losing.
Last year, a seven-seeded UConn won the title behind a scorching hot Shabazz Napier and his sidekick Ryan Boatright. All it really takes is a team getting hot at the right time. They defeated an eighth-seeded Kentucky.
The NFL playoffs are about determining what team is playing the best football at the right time.
The NBA and MLB playoffs are about determining what team is the best.
The NCAA Tournament is about madness. Just the way it should be.