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The Best Sporting Event in America

The growth of the NCAA College Basketball tournament, commonly known as "March Madness," continues to be as exponential as ever. In fact, the growth of the tournament threatens American productivity throughout the month of March, as conservative projections estimate the loss to be well over one billion dollars each season. This year should be no different and, given the relative parity of several teams in contention for the 2008 championship and even more for the Final Four in general, could set records for attendance, lack of attendance at work and Internet minutes spent on-line while purportedly working.

So, with the competing factors of paying homage to this incredible three-weekend long event and maintaining permanent employment, this article provides some tips and thoughts on reconciling the same in this Internet age.

1) If at all possible, do the right thing and take vacation the first Thursday and Friday of the pool

In the long run, employers and co-workers will respect you for being forthright. If they know you well, they will understand while perhaps questioning your priorities; if they do not, taking two days off in March, when the weather is improving, spring break is starting for all of you that have kids or are still in school, will not seem unreasonable or excessive. The alternative of surfing the Internet for scores, taking long lunches and skipping out the back door early will not endear you to anyone and may cause you more problems than not.

Additionally, as the week itself will be hectic enough, you will welcome having a late night that Wednesday to look over the field yourself, submit your own pool entries and update the status of any pools that you are personally running.

And, unless you are on the West Coast, in which case you might miss an hour or two of games the following Thursday or Friday, you will not need any additional time off from work to still be able to watch every game as needed.

Believe it or not, whether you then stay at home for the first and second round, travel to sports bars or even Las Vegas, as I did during most of the 1990's, the severe inundation of total immersion in the tournament will be such that you will welcome a few days away from it and may actually welcome coming into work on the following Monday. By Thursday, the fever will be back at full pitch and you will be ready for the big night time third round games.

2) The Internet is your best friend

So, while you are "working" Monday

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