LANDON WASHBURN, CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Photo Courtesy of Landon Washburn
The NFL Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup are considered to be the best sporting events.
This past season, the Super Bowl had around 120 million viewers. In 2022, FIFA had 1.5 billion viewers for the World Cup.
March Madness’s highest viewership in the last 25 years was the 2015 Championship game between Duke and Wisconsin, rising to 28 million viewers.
Although March Madness doesn’t get as many viewers as other major sporting events, it is still the most remarkable sporting event ever created.
March Madness is a NCAA Division 1 single elimination basketball tournament. Both men and women have a bracket of 68 teams, all competing to be named the greatest team in college basketball.
March Madness is all about the upsets and chaos that occur. Last-second game winners and David vs. Goliath headlines fill the headlines.
Who would have thought that 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson would knock off 1-seeded Purdue? Any team can win in March Madness.
Back in 2022, 15-seed St. Peter’s – led by Doug Edert and St. Bonaventure’s own Daryl Banks III – had maybe the most memorable run in recent years. They beat a two, seven and three seed before their magical run ended in the Elite Eight.
Now, upsets can happen in other sports, but they aren’t as likely during college basketball in March. Take the NBA, for example. Only one four-seed or higher has won the NBA championship since the NBA went to a 16-team playoff format in 1984.
March Madness produces a “bracket challenge” where countless people try to predict exactly how the 68-team tournament will go. It is virtually impossible, but that doesn’t stop people from sharing what they think will happen. No one has ever had a perfect bracket.
It allows smaller programs to get the glory that the major programs get. When highly sought-after college athletes go to big basketball programs, they play for one-to-two years and then go on to play professionally. The college athletes that go to the smaller schools, like St. Peter’s or Fairleigh Dickinson, still might have goals to play professionally, but they go because they love playing basketball. This two-week tournament allows athletes to show why they are talented even though they were not allowed to play at Duke or North Carolina.
washbulj22@bonaventure.edu
