by Pete Smits

Created on: March 09, 2008

MARCH MADNESS: A User's Guide

If you're reading this, chances you are either an avid follower of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament or know someone that is and have decided that if you can't change their obsession bordering on insanity, then you might as well learn something about this event and maybe even enjoy it along the way. If you fall into the latter category, this article is especially for you.

WHAT IT IS: A single elimination tournament that begins with 16 games on each of Thursday and Friday (this year, March 20-21, 2008), followed by 8 more games each of the next two days, namely 48 games over a four day span where every game ends a season for the losing team. Sixty-four teams make the main draw; those that survive the first weekend advance to the second weekend of the tournament in separate Regional locations, with 4 additional games each of the next Thursday and Friday evenings, followed by two games each of the next Saturday and Sunday that leave us with four teams remaining: The Final Four. These four teams are the elite of the year's College Basketball crop and advance to the site of the Final Four, San Antonio in 2008, play the Semi-Finals on the following Saturday and the National Final Monday evening, at which time the champion is crowned. Having said very little other than describing the tournament logistics, if you are a veteran of these wars, you are already champing at the bit; if encountering this for the first time, meaning that you recently moved to the United States or are just starting to follow sports, you should be interested and intrigued by now.

WHY AMERICA THRIVES ON MARCH MADNESS: Simply put, there is nothing like it in sports. Contrasting the excitement, structure and finality of March Madness to the ongoing politics of the NCAA College Football Championship, created by computers, fabricated by a consortium of competing concerns and never leaving everything settled on the field is all you need to understand the attraction of "the Big Dance." For three weeks, everyone recalls their alma mater, becomes a college basketball fan and lives and dies with their favorite teams or, even more likely, the ones that give them a chance for winning their NCAA pools.

WHEN DO WE ENTER THE POOLS: The Madness truly begins on the Sunday preceding the start of the tournament, known as Selection Sunday, at which time the 64 (actually two teams have to play to get into the tournament in a Play-In game on the following Tuesday) teams that are selected

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