Portfolio at NYU

Posted 04.09.04
Going "Mad": Why we go so crazy for March Madness

By Erin Bruehl

Every March, this country goes mad. Over college basketball, that is. 'March Madness' officially kicks off on March 18 with the first rounds in the men's NCAA tourney in Buffalo, Seattle, Denver and Raleigh. However, from the college hoops die-hard fans to the 11-months-out-of-the-year non-fans, the excitement is building from dreams of upsets, to alma mater pride, to bracketology and office pools. There is something special about March Madness.

Unlike the best-of-seven championship of professional basketball, college hoops do not have a playoff series. One loss and that team is out, a system that lends itself to upsets and Cinderella stories, which is part of March Madness' appeal, according to Tricia Garner, associate editor of The Sporting News.

"March Madness is the greatest thing in sports," she said. "Everybody gets into it, even if they don't usually watch it. People love to see the underdog win and it can happen on any given day. They don't get a chance to recover and win the next game like in a series."

And there are many memorable upsets in men's NCAA history, such as the 1991 Duke Blue Devils' win over the heavily favored and undefeated UNLV Runnin' Rebels in the Final Four semifinals. Duke scraped by with two points over much the same team that defeated them by 30 points in the championship the previous year and advanced to the championship game against Kansas, where they took the national title.

Duke fans are some of the most loyal and devoted hoops fans, as it becomes a social event and not just a sporting one, for even non-fans, according to Allison Williams, Duke class of 2003, who now works at Rizzoli Universe in New York.

"It's a bonding activity," she said. "I didn't watch college basketball until I went to Duke and now that I'm out of college I love getting together with friends to watch and get nostalgic about sleeping in tents to see a big game. People can get together, watch games and hang out in a relaxed setting."

Two of the biggest social appeals of March Madness are betting sheets and bracketology, found in just about very office, school and other work place around the country.

Gary Eisenberg, 29, from New Jersey and now manager of a bookstore in Princeton, has been running a March Madness pool since 1988, starting when he was in the seventh grade and involving everyone from immediate family members to teachers and co-workers. Now there are about 20-25 people in his pool but in high school there were as many as 50-60. He says March Madness makes him a bigger college hoops fan and that betting is part of the excitement and not just for monetary reasons.

"Betting is part and parcel to the fun. And the beauty is that you don't need to know anything," he said with a laugh. "You find yourself rooting for teams you never heard of before. There's no reason a kid from central Jersey should stay up to root for the New Mexico Lobos."

Eisenberg added that following the tourney is like following a giant story and he enjoys even filling out the betting sheets and keeping everyone in his pool up-to-date on game results.

The NCAA Tournament is one of the most bet on sporting events of the year. A google search for "March Madness betting" turns up over 14,500 hits. Another 7,900 hits turn up under "March Madness gambling." Bets can even be done on websites such as www.sportsbetting.com or www.hoopsfrenzy.com, specifically for office pools. The amount of bets can range from the $100 that the winner of Eisenberg's office pool gets (about $5 per sheet) to upwards of $20 or $50 a sheet.

Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an outplacement consulting firm with over 40 offices nationwide, released a study in early 2003 that confirms how mad this country goes over college basketball. According to the firm, if every worker spends 10 minutes a day on March Madness activities, from talking about games to betting to checking scores, as much as $1.4 billion could be lost in productivity. However, it is not necessarily all bad they argue as such talk could bring stress-relief to workers.

As Garner and Eisenberg pointed out, it is a tournament for which no prior knowledge is necessary making it easy for even the non-fan to get into the madness.

Peter Hamby, 22, from Virginia and now a graduate student at New York University and a huge college basketball fan, agrees.

"In office pools, even people who don't know what the hell is going on bet. A woman in my dad's office pool decides on teams based on what uniforms she likes," he said.

Hamby, a University of Cincinnati fan, added that such a concentration of games in a short period of time [less than three weeks] keeps people watching.

"Except the World Cup, there's nothing else like it," he said.