With the coming NCAA championships, excitement is mounting among collegiate basketball fans. The excitement hasn’t been shared by all, though. See below for Grant and Jacob’s takes on this issue.

Jacob’s Take: Stop the Madness!

March Madness – as NCAA mania grips the nation, I confess myself (along with a few others – we seem to constitute a small minority) rather unenthused. I haven’t watched a single game, or filled out a bracket, or even hung my tinsel on the collegiate athletics tree for the year. I know, it’s shameful.

I suppose I understand supporting a team to which you have a personal connection, but the fanatic devotion some people show borders on hysteria. Perhaps, as I have no strong connection with any particular college, I can’t understand the devotion some people have for their alma mater.  But all the same, the hype that the tournament in general gets is more than I feel should be given to college basketball.

Much of the reason the excitement surrounding this event seems to get out of hand is that it’s an amateur league, and people get more excited about it than they do about the NBA. To me, at least, this seems backwards. Shouldn’t we pay more attention to players who are at the height of their career than the up-and-coming college students who will soon take their place?

We can all enjoy college basketball, but it’s not necessary to pretend to be a part of it. The players are the ones winning the games, and predicting a game correctly doesn’t elevate a fan to their level.

Grant Take: Celebrate the Passion

From an outside perspective, the NCAA tournament may seem to lean on the crazy side of things. A bunch of people cheering for another bunch of people to throw a ball in hoop? And those brackets? Who cares how University A is seeded compared to University B? Whether or not you choose to get bogged down in these details is up to you, but what we gain as a whole from March Madness is a shared cultural experience that is unique to us as Americans

For many of us, the excitement of March Madness is as much about the enjoyment of watching the game as it is about the basketball itself. Getting together with friends and family to watch basketball, or any sport really, is as American as apple pie. March Madness is a chance for those of us who aren’t regular season basketball fans to sit with the NBA fanatics and enjoy an experience together.

Brackets are just another way to enhance the fun. To be blunt, who really cares when their bracket is not perfect?  There is about a one in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 chance that a bracket will be perfect, so most sane NCAA fans shake it off when one of their predictions is wrong and continues in the fun. Among all of these bracket contests there is little angry or bitterness, just friendly competition.

There is no harm that comes from the enthusiasm of March Madness, only joy. The NCAA tournament is no more overblown than any other major cultural event, and the hype is simply satisfying the demands of all the Americans who enjoy it. The majority of Americans can’t be wrong, can they?