Got those brackets filled out? Better hurry
The NCAA Tournament starts today.
And I don’t like it one bit.
Every year since I can remember, my favorite day on the entire sports calendar was the first day of the men’s basketball tournament. It was always on Thursday, and it was like a basketball explosion. Games started before lunch, and they went all through the day, the evening and into the night.
It was a sports fan’s nirvana.
Now, the start of the tournament has been pushed back with the expanded 68-team field and a pair of play-in games Tuesday and Wednesday. Granted, we’ve had the single play-in game for the past couple years, but with essentially the worst two teams in the field battling for a spot in the 64-team bracket, that didn’t feel like the start of the tournament.
But with four games and several teams that are legitimate squads — these play-in games now aren’t just 16-seed wanna-bes — this feels like the start of the tournament.
Our basketball explosion has been replaced by a basketball trickle.
It stinks.
The start of the NCAA Tournament has always been something of an unofficial holiday for sports fan. People take an extra-long lunch to catch some action. Some even play hookie from work.
But now? Is anyone even going to watch these first four games?
And what about brackets? Everyone always had until Thursday morning to mull over their choices and fill out their sheets. Now, it seems only right that brackets are filled out today.
(I did mine this morning on NewsOK.com’s uPickEm contest.)
This whole bracket expansion has completely thrown off the tournament rhythm that we have come to expect. I’m sure in time we’ll come to accept it, but right now, I’m not excited about the start of the tournament and I don’t know if I’ve ever felt that way before.
It stinks.
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Maybe I’m alone in this, but I couldn’t care less about filling out a bracket. I’ve got other, more important things to do. I guess the President can do mine for me.