Why Does March Madness Mean so Much?

March Madness brings out the best of us every year.

When I was younger, I would enter every bracket I could. Friends, families, co-workers and strangers alike would be subject to my masterful analysis and game picking.  Eventually I got tired of trying to remember who I took and how much I was losing.  I took several years off.

Time has passed and I wanted to get back into the game.  So now, every year, well every year for the past three, we have a family March Madness Brackets Challenge.  Usually 10-15 of us will put in a couple of bucks, look for the vulnerable 5/12 seeded games, pick our teams and hope for the best.  The winners will be lucky to see any money much less win a life changing amount.  LC gathers cell phone numbers for group texts (my opportunity to talk trash over text) and creates the pool.  I'll be lucky to win a C-Note if I can pick more upsets than everyone else.

I'm a gainfully employed adult who does not believe winning the brackets will change my way of life, so, so why does it mean so much?

I'm sitting here in my unlit family room, cursing the TV because Tennessee lost and St. Mary's got blown out by an over rated UCLA team.  I'm occasionally standing up because I'm too nervous to sit.  I'm coaching from my chair, asking why someone didn't go up strong, or box out, or shoot when left open.  I'm making fun of family members who pick teams because they like their colors, mascots or because their friend's cousin's daughter went to that college.  These actions are all in the hopes of winning enough money for a night out at a pub and grille. Why?

After that UCLA/St Mary's game, it finally dawned on me.  Hear me out.  

Spring has finally arrived.

After the NFL playoffs are over at the end of January (the Super Bowl doesn't count as it is is more entertainment than sport...sue me), the winter doldrums set in.  Shoveling snow, lack of light, shivering from car to house, car to office and vice versa and constantly cold temperatures drain the life out of me, as I'm sure it does everyone else.  

It's not until the first round of the NCAA Tournament that I come out of my work shell.  Thursday and Friday, I think about what I have going on that day for meetings and leave early to catch games.  I go out for a walk watching streams or ESPN to see scores and action. I grab a beer, sit outside and see what games are next.  In fact, after that UCLA/St. Mary's game, I took E-Dog outside so she could do her business, wearing just a long sleeve shirt and shorts for me, as I did not want her barking this late.  I'm happy being outside without being freezing, snowy or foggy. 

I don't care that much about the brackets or winning a couple of bucks that will probably just go to Dunkin Donuts.  I care that it means that by the end of the end of the Tournament, it will 60 degrees outside.  I guess I'm a Florida boy at heart.  

Go Gonzaga!!

photo courtesy of kstp.com