Basketball Tournaments Are A Necessary Distraction

This is not a sports site. In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t cover sports because a) we don’t have the staff with sufficient sports knowledge, b) we don’t have the budget to travel to games, and c) sports are, at best, a distraction, not a necessity. There’s more than enough news to keep Our Staff busy every day.

However, the insanity of current news, the constant barrage of information, the perpetual questioning of ‘How is this happening?’ is tough on our brains and our mental health. To preserve some sense of sanity, we all need breaks that give our minds a distraction, exercising the opposite lobe of our minds so that the side that handles reasoning (and panic) can take a well-deserved break.

Much of the time our choice of distractions is solitary, streaming movies or television shows, listening to music, putting together puzzles, and endlessly scrolling through cat pictures. There are times, however, when it does us well to be part of a group activity that doesn’t involve signing petitions or holding picket signs. Fortunately, we have March Madness and the NCAA Basketball Tournaments.

What makes these tournaments ‘Mad?’ Because the best of the best are gathered, along with all their fans, for a single-elimination tournament that ends with the crowning of a champion. It’s go big or go home and the results include, but are not limited to, upsets, chaos, remarkable plays, and historic moments. Polls go out the window. It doesn’t matter who is ranked where at the start of the tournament. Everyone has a chance to win. One slip-up, one wrong move, and a number one-seeded team can go down in a heap. We’ve seen it happen too many times before.

At the heart of all this chaos are two 68-team brackets, men’s and women’s. The teams are selected, then seeded, then placed in a bracket by a committee of twelve NCAA officials. Thirty-one of the 68 teams automatically qualify to play in the NCAA Tournament because they won their respective conference tournaments. The goal is to create matchups that are competitive and are most likely to bring the best teams to the Final Four games.

Not every ‘good’ team is chosen. This year, Indiana, Boise State, West Virginia, and Ohio State are on the list of close-but-not-quite teams. Warning: you’ll hear their coaches and fans complain about being left out for the next three weeks. They’ll all swear that they were cheated out of a bracket position.

The NCAA revealed both the men’s and women’s brackets last night. Now comes the fun part: guessing who is going to win. Don’t worry, filling out a ‘perfect’ bracket is almost impossible. In fact, it’s rare for most people to get past the first round of games with their brackets intact.

How does one fill out a bracket? Start with one of the two brackets below:

Men’s Bracket

Women’s Bracket

Note: If you’re trying to view the brackets on a mobile device, you may have to zoom in to read team names

Start by choosing who you think will win the first round of games and place the winner in the next round of brackets. Don’t know anything about any of the teams? No problem! There are plenty of guides online, including USA Today, which hosts a contest for the best bracket performance, the Associated Press, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated (men’s and women’s). You can follow their advice if you wish, but keep in mind that even the experts are often surprised by the outcome of these games. Anything can happen!

If you want to watch the games but don’t have the cash to attend in person, all the men’s games are broadcast live on CBS and Turner Sports. Here’s the viewing schedule. The NCAA also streams the games on their website. Unfortunately, women’s games don’t tend to get as much love from sports media, despite the fact that their games are often significantly more exciting and unpredictable. The games are scattered across ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. Here’s the schedule. Regrettably, the NCAA doesn’t directly stream the games and an ESPN or Disney+ subscription may be required to view the games.

Will watching a sport you don’t understand at all solve the world’s problems? No, not even close. Look at this as an opportunity to bond with people who are not quite as news-obsessed as you are. Go to a bar to watch some games. Maybe make some new friends.

Our minds need exciting distractions right now and NCAA March Madness provides that in bulk.