I hop up on the bandwagon, cheer when everyone else does and get angry when my team doesn't win. Do I even know who is playing? No. Do I care? Not at all. Am I just here for the food? Mostly, yes.
March Madness has everyone talking, and I'm just staring at the TV trying to catch up. Let's take some steps in trying to figure this whole "sports" thing out, shall we? Let's try to make our clueless brains a little less clueless. Here's what you should know.
1. March Madness is nothing like the Super Bowl.
There are no cool commercials, and there's no Katy Perry riding a "dinosaur dog" during halftime. There are multiple teams on multiple channels playing against one another. Oh, and keep in mind that these are college teams, not professional teams.
2. Brackets.
I'm sure everyone has heard this term being thrown around a time or two. No, this is not the bracket symbol you find on your computer, but is rather a homemade grid looking-thing basketball fans make in order to predict the winning team at the end of March Madness. You focus on each game and predict who you think the winner is going to be of that specific game. People typically make brackets with their friends, and whoever has the best bracket at the end wins something. (This is supposed to be fun, so just go with it.) The point is to win the most games.
3. Sweet 16.
No, there is no cake. This is the third round of the bracket where there are only 16 teams left (out of the 64 that you start with). If you are keeping a bracket, you should be hoping some of the teams you chose are still in the game at this point, because that is one step closer to victory for you.
4. Elite Eight.
This comes after the Sweet 16 (where there is no cake, can't forget that). This is where there are eight teams left in contrast to the 16 that were left in the last round. After the Elite Eight is over, comes the Final Four, where the suspense gets real. If your chosen teams are still in at this point, then you should be getting very anxious/excited. Stare at the TV and act like you care. Keeping your eyes on the scoreboard is always a safe move.
5. Seeds.
No flowers are blooming and no trail mix is being made. "Seeds" are numbers 1-16 that basically tell people watching March Madness how good certain teams are. If a basketball team makes it to March Madness (which is pretty hard to do, by the way) then they will get a number (aka a seed). This helps people doing their brackets predict which teams will win. Easy, right? Well, not exactly. Every year, a team with a low seed surprisingly wins against a team with a high seed. (This is called an "upset.") It is important when making your bracket to consider that anything can happen.
