Good Times

Well, this is what it's all about. All the excitement, all the fun. The NCAA tournament. In light of all that is going wrong in sports these days, it is easy to say, "Hey, here's something pure." Yes, the NCAA men's basketball tournament is special. Besides the Super Bowl, it is probably the sports event that brings more Americans together. Even people who don't follow sports are interested. It takes over an entire network for three weeks. It even pre-empts soap operas. This is BIG!

Unfortunately it is not as pure as we would like. Like any other sport there is controversy. Cheaters are everywhere, but we can't look away. Every year there is another men's basketball program in trouble: St. Bonaventure, Georgia, Missouri. Even past favorites have their tournament records tarnished retroactively. Those Fab Five teams at Michigan, don't mean as much after Chris Webber admitted to taking money from boosters back in high school. One of the biggest stories leading up to the tournament was the release of one of Jim Harrick, Jr.'s final exams. Sports can be so much fun.

This is not the only black mark on the tournament. The purity of college basketball, only gets really exciting when there is something more. Sure Cinderella stories are great. Yes, almost every game is a nail biter, but what keeps me on the edge of my seat every weekend, is my office pool. The beauty of filling out an entire bracket before hand, is that every game suddenly has the potential for becoming a deal breaker. If the right teams win, I could make $100 from $5. That's pretty good money. Not to mention the possibility of winning one of the on-line bracket challenges. (Although, usually after the first night I'm out of the running on those.)

What it all comes down to, is that sports in America are never pure. They are never as true as they seem. Someone is always looking to make an extra buck, and that means that someone is going to do the wrong thing. It certainly makes things exciting, though. If Chris Webber had never gotten all that money, we never would have seen that ill fated timeout call when they were out of timeouts. Aww, the memories.