March Madness: The Greatest Sporting Event of all Time

March Madness is the greatest sporting event of all time. It is the only sporting event that brings together homes, offices and schools. 40 million Americans fill out a bracket each year, and more people take part each year. Every third Thursday in March the world stands still: from noon until after midnight there is non-stop basketball, constant action and unforgettable moments. And the next day it all repeats itself. There are eight more games a day over the weekend before it’s finally time for a break. No other event will have a total of 48 games over four days and still be fun to watch them all.

But my favorite part of March Madness is chasing the perfect clip. Correctly predicting every single March Madness game seems like an impossible feat, but every year people believe that someone will finally make it. The odds are astronomically small – 1 in 9.2 quintillion – but everyone believes it will finally happen one year. It is a testament to the perseverance of the human spirit. We watch every game until finally the last perfect bracket is gone. And next year everything will repeat itself. We get another chance and that’s the beauty of it all.

But why is it so difficult to get a perfect bracket? It’s all about the excitement. Every year, a team that was flawless during the regular season gets upset, but the excitement always catches the entire basketball community by surprise. Last year, it was No. 15 seeded Saint Peter’s who defeated No. 2 seeded Kentucky, then later No. 3 seeded Purdue. A few years earlier it was Oral Roberts, Florida Gulf Coast and Middle Tennessee. No one predicts these tiny middle schools will upset some of the nation’s largest. It’s the ultimate David vs. Goliath story. There is hope for smaller schools across the country that one day they will be the ones to pull off the biggest upset in college basketball history.

March Madness is also incredible because it offers what I believe to be the greatest single-game excitement of any sport ever. Late at night on the first day of March Madness in 2018, No. 1 seeded Virginia played No. 16 seeded Maryland, Baltimore County. Normally UVA would destroy UMBC, but something was in the air that night. UMBC’s guards destroyed UVA, and it wasn’t even close for the entire game. You were the only number 16 ever hit, no, destroy a #1 seed.

But overall, March Madness is so great because of the memories. Every viewer remembers at least one game or game. Everyone fondly remembers filling in a bracket as a child or watching the games in the middle of class. It’s something special to millions of Americans, and each of those people can tell you a story about it. Very few events unite a country quite like picking the first game of the tournament and the experience is second to none. There are very few certainties in life, but every March I’m faced with two: I’ll always watch March Madness and I’ll always think I have the perfect brace.