NGU gone mad for March Madness? Read about how excited NGU is for college basketball
Photo by Casey Burton.
Casey Burton, Sports Writer
March Madness is here and has taken over North Greenville University’s student body. The students’ competitiveness is peaking through, as well as the professors during this month of basketball. Who will have the winning bracket?
D1 college basketball hits its peak of popularity during the month of March every year during the championship known as March Madness. This championship brings in friendly competition and bets from everyone… even people who don’t know much about basketball join in on the fun.
March Madness is hosted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. This tournament consists of 68 teams and works its way down to one final winning team. Prior to the first four games, people make hypothetical brackets, outlining how they predict the tournament will go and who will win.
Brackets have become a competitive pastime for basketball fans and even people who don’t know much about basketball at all. Because of how unpredictable the tournament is, even non-sport lovers have a good shot at blindly picking winners. The predictions made draw more people into the games and this is particularly true amongst NGU campus life.
Speaking on how brackets work, sophomore basketball player Jacob Brown has much to say, “There are a ton of methods when it comes to making a bracket. Most people go based on the ranking of the teams before the tournament starts, some go based off of historical statistics of the tournament and others go based off of their favorite team colors. Annoyingly, any way works. I go based off the teams ranking mostly.”
The way the competitiveness is scaled in the brackets, is based on how many points are being won by each person who created a bracket. The points are given to the participants who accurately predicted the winning team in each round. At the end of the tournament, whoever has the most points/predicted the champion wins the bracket battle.
Professors at NGU have joined in on the madness. Some have made their own brackets to compete with the students and offer extra credit to the winners. So not only will the winner have bragging rights, but also a good grade which helps more people pay attention to the tournament.
“My bracket isn’t looking good at the moment, but it is wild to me that a girl in my class picked teams based off of their mascots and colors… and her bracket is doing better than mine. I don’t even think she has watched a game ever, but that shows you the unpredictable reality of it all,” Myles Daniels, junior sports management major said.
As the tournament plays out, the competition among peers builds up. Some believe that the tension surrounding the basketball games take away the sentiment of the games and that the bracket debacle becomes more important than the games played.
“I had to stop making brackets because I would pay more attention to that than actually enjoying the game with friends. I think I am just too competitive for it,” Kayla Harris, junior NGU lacrosse player said.
The stakes of the games are still high as we wait and find out who the winning team will be and who has the winning bracket.
