I can vividly remember the many ways my classmates in middle and high school tried to hide March Madness games on their devices from our teachers’ watchful eyes. Eventually, though, they always figured it out once a huddle formed around a small phone.
In essence, March Madness is a thriller: fast, unpredictable and entertaining. Sixty-eight teams narrow down to one winner in a matter of three weeks, big Division I schools play against smaller Division I schools, celebrities fill out brackets and lots of money is put at stake.
My AP Psychology teacher always said, “The ones who just guess and know the least about basketball are the ones who win.”
In a perfect theoretical world, however, this wouldn’t make sense. Wouldn’t the higher seed in each game win because it is the better-ranked team?
This contradiction is why we love March Madness. It’s so unpredictable. The probability of correctly guessing the entire bracket based on the theory of flipping a coin is one in 9.22 quintillion.
There is always an underdog that pulls off a big upset. So far this season, No. 6 UNC lost to No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth and No. 5 Wisconsin lost to No. 12 High Point. UNC — one of the most successful programs in history — has made it to the Final Four 21 times, so failing to reach the round of 32 was a major shock and a delight for Duke fans. Wisconsin, leading for most of the game, lost 83–82 to High Point after it scored a bucket with 11.2 seconds left. On Saturday, No. 11 Texas upset No. 3 Gonzaga.
No. 9 Iowa beat No. 1 Florida in a major upset Sunday. Florida is the first No. 1 seed to lose in this tournament.
We can all relate to wanting the underdog to win. The movies that dominate the box office are not about the same person winning over and over again, but about a protagonist who comes from a disadvantaged situation and works hard to reach the top. What makes us human is that we struggle, but perseverance can give us hope that we don’t need to be the best to achieve success.
Few things in life better reflect this than March Madness. Probability is overshadowed by possibility during these weeks — or more simply, we can believe anything can happen.
If we can watch what we thought was impossible become true, then we are more likely to believe the same about our own dreams.
March Madness is more than just a tournament. It differs from its closest comparison, fantasy football, where the focus is more on the individual watching and wagering on players than on the athletes themselves. We can feel the emotions potently even behind the screen after an upset: the joy felt by these athletes is ubiquitous in the atmosphere of the viewers.
If you take anything from watching these college basketball games, let it be the motivation to give hope and chaos a chance.
