March Madness is a high-level, major college basketball tournament where 64 teams compete for the national championship. This is a very popular tournament known for its chaotic format and a plethora of teams playing at one time. The origin behind the word March Madness was from a 1939 essay by Henry V. Porter, an official with the Illinois High School Association (IHSA), describing the intense excitement surrounding their state high school basketball tournament. The term later became popular in the NCAA by broadcaster Brent Musburger in 1982.
Because of the madness, March is one of the best months in sports. With the NBA and NHL going into playoffs and baseball starting, almost every sport is on at one time, but the month of March will always belong to college basketball. The reason that March is very exciting is because of upsets, a surprising, unexpected result where a heavily favored team loses to an underdog expected to lose. These upsets bring excitement to March and all of its fans and create the Cinderella stories that sports fans love.
In past years, there has been plenty of upsets in Cinderella stories like 2011 VCU, 2022 Saint Peters, and 2006 George Mason. These teams is what makes March exciting: when a team that isn’t even supposed to beat good teams goes far in the tournament. However, this isn’t really as much of a possibility now. With the rise of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) coaches from big schools like Duke, UNC, Kansas, and UConn can now pay students from schools like VCU and George Mason millions of dollars to transfer and play for the bigger schools.
For example, the #1 seed is the highest achievement a team can have. If you are a #1 seed in March Madness that means that you were a Top 4 team in the country with the overall number 1 seed being at the top of the bracket. Being the #1 seed brings expectations to an all time high as #1 seeds are expected to perform and win every night, but that’s not always the case oow with NIL. Sometimes #1 seeds lose when they aren’t supposed to. For example, before the NIL in 2023, Fairleigh Dickinson University beat #1 seed Purdue 63-58 This game was horrible for Purdue with Player of the Year, Edey, only scoring 10 points. This game was a huge shocker because Purdue was the best team in the country all year, but now with the NIL, sports fan don’t get to see these upsets as much anymore. Last year, the #1 seed in each bracket made the final four: the top teams played all the top teams with the University of Florida beating the University of Houston 67-64. It may seem that Cinderella teams could be fading away, but only time will tell.
March Madness will always be remembered for its fascinating upsets, Cinderella runs, and the bracket challenge, but the rise of NIL could be ruining the tournament for good with coaches now being able to buy players from the transfer portal. The smaller/lesser known teams have a less chance every year to go far in the tournament, which may make the the madness of March turn into mildness.
