It is my belief that if you polled the "average" sports fan, that the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament (AKA the Big Dance or March Madness) would rank as the most popular sporting event held in the United States. While the actual championship game itself may not be as popular as the Super Bowl, but for an entire entity, the 64 game, three week single elimination tournament is an extremely grueling test, that the victor earns, without question, the title of champion, by winning a total of 6 games over this period.

Since its humble beginnings, in 1939, March Madness has built a legacy that stands on its own, which of course includes Dynasty's (such as UCLA's string of 7 straight championships and 10 in 12 years), Cinderella stories (North Carolina State in 1983, and Villanova in 1985), as well as made stars of college kids, Lew Alcindor (later know as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) winning 3 straight M.O.P (Most Outstanding Player) awards, Michael Jordan, who as a skinny 18 year old freshman, hit the winning basket in the final seconds in 1982 for coach Dean Smith's first championship, Danny Manning leading a group of no names from Kansas to the 1988 championship, or most recently Carmello Anthony, again as an 18 year old freshman leading Syracuse to the championship in 2003.

The Greatest College Coach of All Time!

It is my belief that contributing to the popularity of March Madness is the fact that there is never any argument about whether the team who wins is the most deserving or is the best team, unlike College Football, where almost every year one team is claiming that they were the best, but didn't get to play in the BCS championship. That reason, plus the sheer number of "heart stopping", "buzzer beating" games that occur every year makes this event one that is unparalleled.

One of the best games of all time, still makes my stomach upset every time I think about it occurred in 1983, when the University of Houston, led by Akeem Olajawon, Clyde Drexler and company, nicknamed Phi Slamma Jamma for their race horse style of play under the tutelage of Guy V. Lewis played North Carolina State University, a 6^th seed and in an ending that is one of the most famous in tournament history Derek Whitenburg attempted a 30 foot shot with 3 seconds remaining that was short, but Lorenzo Charles leaped high in the air and dunked the ball through the basket to win the game, sending head coach Jim Valvano running onto to the court and in circles looking for someone to hug. Akeem Olajawon became the last player from a losing team to be named the tournament most outstanding player. The ending sequence of this game is still, 20 plus years later shown in commercials promoting March Madness and contributed to the term March Madness. A lot of credited goes to Brent Musburger for making the term so popular during the 1980's broadcast. However a man by the name of H. V. Porter, an official with the Illinois High School Association wrote an essay in 1939 titled March Madness, which is where the term can first be traced to.

Another fantastic upset occurred just 2 years later in 1985, when the "All Mighty" Georgetown Hoyas led by their imposing coach John Thompson and a fantastic player Patrick Ewing played a team from their own conference Villanova, who was an 8^th seed in their region. Villanova played "the perfect game" shooting better than 78% for the game (22 out of 28) including 90% (9 out of 10) in the second half to stun defending champ Georgetown. In fact this game ranks as the #3 greatest upsets in Sports History according to ESPN.com. Games such as these simply enforce the greatness of this event and will insure that the popularity of it will continue for years to come.

One of the longest, impressive streaks regarding March Madness belongs to the Duke Blue Devils. The streak of which I speak is The Duke Blue Devils streak of 13 straight tournament appearances since 1995, when their coach Mike Krzyzewski, missed most of the season with an injury. Prior to that year, Duke has made the tournament every year since 1983. Just this past season (2006/07) Duke dropped from the Associated Press' top 25 rankings for the first time since January 1996, a streak of more than 200 weeks, second longest in Division 1 since the ranking have been kept.

So sports fans, March Madness is almost upon us, so get your pencils sharpened, as in about one week, it will once again be time for "Bracketology" which is a term created by Joe Lunardi of ESPN and is defined as the slang term for predicting the field (outcome of each game) of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. This process is done by Millions of fans across the globe in hopes of either winning millions of dollars by playing a corporate sponsored pick the winner's game, or an office pool among co-workers.

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Lloyds Apple said:

	This gets the blood flowing for the madness, for sure. The streak by Duke, especially in the time of early NBA entries has been incredible.
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March 13, 2008
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