The country has “Sweet 16 Fever” or so it would seem. I’ve not watched a minute of college basketball this season and unless something unusual happens, like Butler or one of the double-digit-seeded teams play in the Final Four, it’s doubtful I will watch any college roundball this season.
It seems like “March Madness,” the media-inspired name for the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament, is the biggest thing since sliced bread if you follow the sports world.
Indeed, the tournament is big. How many millions of dollars this extravaganza spreads to television, advertisers, colleges and the towns in which the tournament is held, I couldn’t guess. Then there is gambling. The office pools where people fill out brackets perhaps funnels millions into the so-called “underground” economy. The money is cash and not reported to the government. Then the legal betting on the Las Vegas line no doubt floats around millions more.
Keeping all of the above in mind, the Harris poll I found about popularity of sports certainly gives me a cause to think again about how much of March Madness is true excitement and how much is hype.
The poll, released in January, reveals that only some 4 percent of Americans list college basketball as their favorite sport. This comes behind in order: Men’s soccer, hockey, men’s pro basketball, auto racing, college football, baseball and, at number one, pro football.
Coming as far behind pro football, as the locked-out NFL looms large at 31 percent, one wonders just how much popularity the March NCAA tournament draws in for a sport with a season that extends some four months with about two games played per week during the regular season.
Just how mad is that?
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