Texas A&M celebrates a comeback victory in March Madness
Photo taken by team photographer

Playoffs in sports are thrilling. No matter the sport, it brings out the best in a player, in a team, in a coach, even in the fans. There is nothing like a playoff atmosphere. What makes them even better is each sport has its own, unique way of running their respective postseason. So that leaves the question: Which sport offers the best playoffs? If you say anything other than March Madness, well, you’re wrong.

Don’t get the narrative twisted here. I said March Madness, not college basketball during the regular season. I think I speak for a lot of people here when I say I could care less about college basketball during its regular season. If a big game is on, I’ll sit down and watch it, but I really don’t care that Cincinnati is playing Tulane on a cold Tuesday night in the middle of January.

What I do care about is March. The conference tournament week and the actual tournament. To me, it’s so much more intense. The players seem to care a lot more. The amount of hustle shown in these tournaments is astronomically larger than during the regular season.

I can recall so vividly, Texas A&M, a 3 seed, vs Northern Iowa, an 11 seed, in the round of 32 back in 2016. With just 44 seconds left in regulation, Northern Iowa held a 12-point lead and thought they were on their way to the sweet 16 for just the second time in school history. That’s when the Madness kicked in. Texas A&M went on an insane 14-2 run to end regulation, forcing overtime, and the magic didn’t end there. The two teams went into a double overtime thriller that saw Texas A&M pull away by 4 at the end.

It's games like this one that make March such a special tournament. There’s an old saying, “It’s not over until the fat lady sings.” March is a perfect example of that. You can’t count a team out until that final buzzer sounds. A team could be down 15 with 30 seconds left and find fire, and just like that you’re in overtime.

Today’s generation has definitely made the tournament a lot more fun to watch than it was say 20 or 30 years ago. With aspects such as bracket tournaments, sports betting, and social media, there are so many ways to make the game more entertaining. Almost everyone I know is involved in a bracket tournament every single year, and most of them involve a monetary reward. This year more than ever, I’ve noticed so many people, especially my age, take an interest in sports betting… I’ve never seen someone care so much about a Jaguars vs Falcons game in my life, but that’s what betting does to a person. It gets them so much more intrigued with the game, no matter what teams are playing.

Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t think the same way I do about March Madness, and it wouldn’t be fair to write this article without addressing the other side. Many arguments towards March Madness not being the greatest tournament lean towards the fact that people don’t like watching college basketball until the actual tournament, therefore, they don’t know anything about it. They don’t know the players, the teams, who’s good and bad, and much more. I talked about this earlier, and I agreed with this statement. However, to me it doesn’t matter that I don’t know any of the players. The thrill of each and every game coming down to the wire outweighs it all. This tournament will have you rooting for players you’ve never heard of. It will have you looking up their whole basketball careers just based off of one performance. That’s what makes brackets fun, anyone can win the pool.

Carsen Edwards driving the baseline against an Illinois defender
Photo by team photographer

I remember back in 2019, the Carsen Edwards led 3 seed Purdue Boilermakers to an elite 8 appearance in which they ended up losing to Virginia. However, Carsen Edwards put on an absolute show. I had never heard of the kid before the tournament, just as I mentioned the critics say. However, he averaged 34.75 points per game in the 4 games they played, including 2 separates 42 point contests. I remember watching the Villanova Purdue game with my cousin. It was the round of 32 in which Purdue rolled over the wildcats by 26 points. Carsen dropped 42 on Jay Wright’s squad, and I was in awe. I couldn’t believe how seemingly every time he put up a shot it went in.

It's games and players like these that make the tournament so exhilarating. Even with all of this though, there are still arguments as to why it’s not the best. One being that it’s a “1 and done” tournament. They say they like the series-based postseasons more, like MLB, NBA, or NHL because they show more of which team has better long-term strategy and depth. My comeback to this is that a 1 and done brings out the best in an athlete. They know their season is on the line every time they step on the floor, so they are going to give you 100% of their effort and some, which makes for some fantastic, all-time classics.

Others complain about the bracket. They say that it makes you focus on that more than your favorite team, and that once it is ruined you stop caring and watching. This could be true for some, but if you have an issue with that, just stop making a bracket and watch the game for what it’s actually worth.

When it’s all said and done, I love March Madness simply because it’s, well, Madness. You never know when a 14 seed is going to shock a 3 seed. Heck, you never know when a 16 seed is going to pull a UMBC and beat the 1 seed. Point is, nothing is predictable which makes it thrilling. If you don’t usually watch it, I really suggest you do. Make a bracket, go to watch parties, just sit back and enjoy college basketball in its peak form.

Is March Madness the Best Postseason Tournament?