Whether it's an outstanding team or one single player, most people have a reason to be invested in this season of madness. It's the largest national single-elimination competition worldwide. Once the main sixty-four teams are determined for the tournament, that number dwindles down to the sweet sixteen, final four and then finally there is only one winner from the national championship.
With these young collegiate teams, the games could go either way. On any given day, any college team could beat another. This concept is known as an anomaly in the basketball world. This also causes fans who want to attend these games to constantly be on their toes to get tickets and hotels, which also as you can imagine makes it pretty expensive. But at least some of the money goes to programs, unlike other expenses that arise because of these events from gambling and betting pools.
Pools are interesting because the odds of having a perfect bracket are so slim that people offer millions for if someone can. The odds of picking a perfect NCAA tournament bracket are a staggering 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (that's 9.2 quintillion). Can you beat the odds? The steaks are high. The tournament could be anyones. This is important because it gives smaller schools a platform to play and sometimes they surprise the viewers by upsetting the big teams. For example, last year the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) Retrievers became the first 16-seed to upset a 1-seed when they defeated the Virginia Cavaliers 74–54 in the first round. Before, this happened you used to be able to automatically throw out the 16-seed team, but you really never know with all the madness! This year, in particular, is interesting because out of the four finalists, three of the head coaches have never made it this far in their coaching career. The hype is that there is no certainty whatsoever, and who doesn't want to take a walk on the wild side every once in a while.
