Every year in March, millions of fans are glued to their televisions and find themselves rooting for teams they have never heard of. Rooting for those teams as if they had followed them their whole lives.
This year, there were 20,056,273 brackets made on ESPN despite a 1-in-120 billion chance of a perfect bracket. What is it about March Madness that gets fans hooked?
The truth is that we all love an underdog story. People pull for Cinderella every tournament as they hope and pray the clock doesn’t strike midnight for those schools. Let me throw some teams at you: [autotag]Lehigh[/autotag], [autotag]Saint Peter’s[/autotag], [autotag]Oral Roberts[/autotag], [autotag]Florida Gulf Coast[/autotag], [autotag]UMBC[/autotag], and this year [autotag]Princeton[/autotag] and [autotag]Fairleigh Dickinson[/autotag].
These teams are a combined 15-15 in the NCAA Tournament since 2010. That doesn’t sound bad, but since 2010, there have been 868 tournament games in total. These seven teams make up only 0.03% of games in that time. The closest any of these teams have gotten to a national championship was Saint Peter’s, who went all the way to the Elite Eight last year. Princeton has a chance to tie that feat if it can beat Creighton this week.
What is it about the March Madness format that makes it so special? Why doesn’t that format work in other sports? I think it’s because the games are one-offs. The format doesn’t work in baseball and softball because the underdogs have to win a three-game series. It doesn’t work in football because there is too much parity.
Farleigh Dickinson, by any measure you look at, is objectively one of the worst teams in the country.
They are ranked 301st by the NET Rating, 299th by Ken Pomeroy's Ratings, 307th by the Sagarin Ratings, & 285th by the RPI
And they just became the second #16 seed to upset a #1
— Mike Leslie (@MikeLeslieWFAA) March 18, 2023
This would be like lining Akron up against Georgia in college football. It wouldn’t work even in a one-off. It would be a cupcake game. They would lose by at least 28.
The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. The “one shining moment” that endures the test of time. You may not know who these teams are when they enter the tournament, but you’ll never forget their magical run in March.
That is the beauty of March Madness.
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