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- The Phenomenon
of March Madness
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The Phenomenon of March Madness
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 For most sports leagues the drama typically peaks with
the championship game. With the Olympics the drama typically peaks with
the gold medal game. In the NBA the drama typically peaks with the NBA
Finals. One of the slight exceptions in America is Major League
Baseball. The World Series has it’s luster, but there are few spikes in
interest on days like Opening Day, Memorial Day, the 4th of July. Days
where the masses have the whole day off and can be lazy and just leave
the TV on all day. But even though the crowd in watching, the intensity
isn’t there.
NCAA
basketball is one of the rare exceptions.
What is widely regarded as the best weekend for the
sport is the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. There’s no one
reason for how that developed. Part of it can be attributed to all the
office betting pools that even the most casual fans get involved in.
Part of it can be attributed to the fact that you’re starting with 64
teams, and 64 groups of fans following their teams. But, by the end of
that first weekend you’re down to only 16 teams. So by the end of the
first weekend most people’s brackets are shot and teams are eliminated.
Probably a bigger factor than anything is the way it’s marketed. On the
first Thursday and Friday they have four games running simultaneously.
On the first Saturday and Sunday they have two games running
simultaneously. This allows them to show the most competitive game at
given time slot, since the television rights are exclusive. So it’s
rare that a time slot goes by without a compelling game. If there’s
multiple close games, the coverage will often hop back and forth
ignoring commercial brakes. It’s nothing new for a sport to market
their product in any way possible, however succeeding in this manner is
an anomaly.
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