March Madness: The NCAA Men's and Women's Division I College Basketball Tournaments ( A Personal Perspective)

Selection Sunday, the day in March that the teams competing in the NCAA men’s and women's Division I college basketball tournament are announced, is a sports highlight of the year for me.

For 2023 Selection Sunday is March 12^th. The men's bracket will be announced at 6 p.m. ET on CBS, and the women's bracket will be announced at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN according to an NCAA webpage.  

The term March Madness is now used to refer to both the men's and women's NCAA Division I college basketball tournaments.

And the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame claims home to the "world's largest basketball," which "measures 30-feet tall and weights 10 tons," according to a Women's Basketball Hall of Fame webpage.  Below is a photo I took May 10, 2017 of that basketball.

I enjoy speculating about and learning which teams are selected, as well as where and whom they will play.  This year’s fields will contain 68 teams. Eight of those teams will play in a first round to reduce the field to 64. The links in this sentence lead to NCAA.com webpages with printable brackets for the men's tournament and for the women's tournament.

I might add that I live in Lexington, Kentucky, which may have a higher percentage of its residents who are college basketball fans than any other city in the world.  It is home to the University of Kentucky (UK) which has won more college basketball games than any other Division I college basketball team and typically leads the nations in home attendance at its home games in Rupp Arena, with approximately 20,000 - 24,000 people in attendance per game. 

Usually, NCAA tournament time is an exciting time here in Lexington.  Persons speculate on how UK will do, who will win, and compete with one another to see who can fill out their NCAA bracket most accurately. Over the years I’ve enjoyed comparing my predictions with those of others as we fill out brackets and compare them.

As a Christian, I like to keep in mind that basketball in a sense has some Christian roots since basketball’s inventor (Dr. James Naismith) graduated from a theological college and served as a chaplain. In fact, he also earned a medical degree, in addition to inventing and coaching basketball and being a physical education instructor. This and much more biographical information about Dr. Naismith and the origin of basketball is available on numerous websites, including the website NaismithBasketballFoundation.com, the website KansasHeritage.org, and the website of the Kansas Historical Society.

I am not a big sports fan in general.  I consider professional sports too professional.  I’ve never been a big fan of high school sports.  And, other than college basketball, college sports haven’t interested me a great deal.  But, Division I men’s college basketball still fascinates me, and in my home state of Kentucky is perhaps The Sport. Some claim basketball is almost a religion in Kentucky.

Gambling on the NCAA Tournament

Many fans gamble on the tournament either by wagering on games or by paying to fill out tournament brackets for a gambling pool.  In some past years I’ve enjoyed placing some small bets with friends on the tournament or individual games.  But, I am basically opposed to gambling, and in recent years haven’t even placed any small friendly bets.  This year I won’t participate in any pools. And, since I didn’t win any of those friendly pools several years ago, please don’t expect any good predictions from me on the tournament.

Also, although my small friendly wagers years ago were only in fun -- and my friends and I enjoyed them -- I do know of cases where people got very upset over disputes about “small friendly bets.”  I do not advocate gambling with money, even in fun.  And, I especially think gambling on NCAA tournament pools may be starting to get out of hand.  I shudder at the possibility that someone may try to “fix” a game for gambling money. You can find links to many articles about gambling scandals involving college basketball by searching the Internet.  

Please focus on the entertainment and don’t gamble any money you can’t afford to lose—better yet, don’t gamble any money.  

More of My Personal Perspective

Personally, I am not as fanatic about college basketball as I used to be. But, I remain excited about the NCAA tournament, especially since the University of Kentucky is one of the teams that may have the best chance to win the championship this year.

To put college basketball in perspective, I do want to point out that obviously college academics are much more important than athletics.  It is sad in a sense that academics do not attract the publicity or fan support that athletics do.  Large numbers of alumni donate huge sums of money to schools specifically to attain quality season seats for college basketball (and college football).

For example, although the University of Kentucky has many fine features and programs, including its Patterson School of Diplomacy, its Pharmacy School, and a very nice library system, it is perhaps best known for its men’s basketball team.

Furthermore, its basketball and football programs apparently generate enough revenue to pay for themselves, other sports programs at the university, and to help fund a few other things, as noted in the 2018 University of Kentucky Athletics Annual Report, and the file linked to here seems to indicate this remained true for 2021-22. UK is apparently one of the few schools whose athletic department is self-sufficient, with a balanced budget.

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Winning games keeps the fans who buy tickets and donate money happy and helps the coach keep his job.  But, all things in perspective.  Regarding the NCAA tournaments, even though 67 of the 68 teams in each of this year’s tournaments will end their season with a loss, they are all winners if they play fair, have fun, and keep the proper perspective between athletics and academics.

In 2023 there are perhaps a handful of teams picked as favorites in the men's tournament, with South Carolina favored among the women. But any of the 68 teams in each field has a chance. We will all have to wait and see. And, we college basketball fans need to keep all things in perspective -- even during “March Madness.”

Let’s make sure we make time for work, family, friends, doing good deeds, and for enjoying the upcoming spring weather.  And, remember that a university’s library is more important than its basketball team – although somehow it doesn’t seem to attract as much attention – especially for a few weeks in spring as March Madness (The NCAA Tournament) makes its annual appearance! Enjoy!

NOTE:

This article was submitted to Google Blogger March 16, 2019. It is adapted from similar articles the author has written in previous years. This article was last revised on March 7, 2023.