It's that time of the year again when March Madness takes over the lives of thousands of Americans. People make bets with their co-workers, hoping to win big at the end of the season by putting their hope into their favorite teams. Luckily, my lack of bias towards any team is an advantage for me and my bracket that, as of right now, is doing pretty well.
I really couldn't tell you the first thing about basketball. I kind of understand some of the rules, thanks to my high school PE teachers, but as far as the political aspect of basketball goes, I'm pretty uneducated. I'm a big fan of soccer, so I understand how the brackets work, but that definitely doesn't mean I know which teams are likely to go far and which aren't.
Up until this year, I haven't paid much attention to March Madness because I haven't had any reason to. This year, though, one of my organizations decided to make a competitive group with the only stipulation being you have to pay $5 into the pool. The slightly competitive side of me emerged through, so I got right on to making my bracket with whatever knowledge I could find about the teams.
To be honest, I made my bracket in about five minutes. I worked off of the little numbers on the side of the teams, which my dad later explained signify what seed the team is in. Basically, I learned that the lower number is better. I threw a couple of upsets in there and was on my way.
After watching a short video on this year's March Madness, I picked North Carolina to win it all. How likely it is that it happens I'm not so sure, but that's alright. Within my competitive group, there are several other people that chose North Carolina to win, so I have a feeling it was a good pick. Other winners include Michigan St., Duke, and Texas Tech, all of which I think are great teams as well after watching a few games.
Even though I don't know much about March Madness and am only focused on who wins so I can hopefully win money later on, I actually think it's kind of a fun idea. It's super fun to see who has perfect brackets, especially when you see how much work people put into creating their lineup for the season. I wish I wasn't such a stereotypical dumbfounded girl when it comes to sports, but there's an added layer of fun that comes with not really knowing the logistics behind the teams and their successes.
Maybe it's luck, or maybe it's the fact that I didn't have the opportunity to pick the teams I like to win, but my bracket is doing really well. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but it's been fun to see my picks actually come true. I can totally understand all of the excitement that surrounds March Madness now that I finally have a bracket of my own.
I'm sure people will read this and wish I had more knowledge about the teams and basketball in general, and believe me, I do too. But all of that aside, March Madness is just about having a good time rooting for teams that you believed would win before the season even begun, and if you can do that with a lot of accuracy, I'd have to say that's pretty impressive.
