For many, March Madness begins with 64 teams and ends the championship game. Usually, the teams who make it to those final games are perennial programs like Kansas, Duke, Michigan State, and other big name schools who consistently reach the “Big Dance.”

But for some, like myself, the real March Madness begins just a week or so earlier with the Conference Tournaments.

To me, the Conference Tournaments provide a higher level of excitement. The mid-major programs in conferences like the CAA, OVC, MVC, and other small conferences that have teams who may have never seen the NCAA tournament and are hoping for their only chance at a bid. For these teams, you see a type of drive and passion that you may not see from major team programs.

For example, teams like Chattanooga, South Dakota State, UNC WIlmington, Austin Peay, Stephen F. Austin, Wichita State, Holy Cross, Yale, and countless others would not have made the NCAAs if not for winning their respective conference tournaments. Several of these teams start their conference tournaments with losing records and fight just for a chance to play these major teams.

Even major conference tournaments have their own bits of excitement. The University of Illinois, who ended with a sub .500 record, made a run in the Big Ten tournament that made many students and fan of the Illini excited that they could potentially make the NCAA tournament. Though they ended up losing in the quarterfinals to Purdue, it still created a bit of drama for the other Big Ten teams. Also, the University of Memphis, a team who seemed destined to be out of postseason play after a disappointing regular season, made it all the way to the finals of the American Conference tournament. Despite losing in that game to Cincinnati, they increased their stock enough to be considered for several postseason tournaments, though they declined invitations.

Throughout the years we have seen several mid-major programs go on to make tremendous upsets in the NCAA tournament. As recent as last year with Georgia State upsetting Baylor, and a few years ago when Butler (who is now considered a disappointment if they don’t reach the NCAAs) who went from barely making the tournament to nearly winning it all against Duke.

So, while the NCAA tournament is and always will be the “Big Dance” and will always be the most watched and covered part of the Division 1 college basketball season. I believe that a true college basketball fan will know that the real madness starts in late April and early March when the conference tournaments begin for both the mid-major and major conference. Maybe next year you’ll tune into the REAL March Madness