March Madness - The Sports Event of the Year?
Every spring Las Vegas is bombarded by visitors caught in the throes of the greatness that is March Madness. This annual event brings much needed tourist dollars into the Valley and boosts everyones wallets. That doesn't mean we Las Vegas locals need to sit on the sidelines and let the out of towners have all the fun. Read on to find a brief history of the tournament, my favorite places to lay down a wager and watch the games.
Now that March Madness is fast approaching it seemed an appropriate time to delve into the ins and outs of this yearly sports mega-event. Herein you'll find a brief history, an explanation of the current tournament and tips and hints on the best places to watch the games and get your bracketology on.
Best Places to Bet on March Madness
Best Places to Watch March Madness
History
It is 1939 and while the looming shadow of World War II begins to cast a pall over the planet and baseball is still the king of American sports, Kansas basketball coach Phog Allen has hatched an idea that will eventually become one of the greatest yearly draws in American sports. Seeking to answer the question of just who is the best college basketball team in the country, Coach Allen designed a single elimination bracketed tournament that ends with one team crowned National Champion.
Little could he have suspected that 73 years later March Madness would so dominate early spring that a 2009 MSN poll found it would cost employers $1.8 Billion in lost productivity. To put the Big Dance's popularity in further context, the same poll discovered that an estimated 45% of Americans enter at least one college basketball poll.
Read my colleague Charlie Zegers' write up for more on the history of the NCAA Basketball Tournament .
What's In A Name?
While the origin of the term March Madness is steeped in mystery, and the rights to the name are the subject of numerous lawsuits, it is generally agreed that CBS sportscaster Brent Musburger popularized the term beginning with the 1982 tournament. also referred to as the Big Dance some claim the annual tourney is second in popularity and revenue only to the Super Bowl. A recent 14 year, $10.8 billion dollar television deal grants this claim ample evidence.
March Madness Today
68 teams compete for the right to be crowned champion. Seeding is based partly on polls conducted by ESPN/USA Today and the Associated Press and partially on the outcomes of the various conference tournaments that are played during Championship Week. The brackets are chosen in big to do fashion on Selection Sunday, which like the NFL Draft has become an event all its own. Head to any local sportsbook to find dozens, pro gamblers and fans alike, watching the CBS extravaganza.
From there the tournament unfolds game by game, round by round, through the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight and the Final Four where every team, from favored heavyweights to underdogs vie for ragging rights and millions of dollars earned for participating schools.
Bracketology
According to the ever wondrous Wikipedia, bracketology "is the process of predicting the field of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, named as such because it is commonly used to fill in tournament brackets for the postseason." Resident ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi is credited with naming the phenomenon that has so dominated American culture that a NY Times article once estimated that nearly $90 million is bet on the tournament annually.
Want in? All you need to do is ask a coworker, buddy or random passerby and you're likely to get handed a bracket. Now comes the hard part, filling out a winning bracket, while surviving the inevitable Cinderella team who screws it up or the first time random luck of the 20 year old college sorority girl intern. To further confound the brain numbers guru Dr. Math estimates that the chances of filling out a perfect bracket are a mind numbing 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (that's a quintillion by the way) making it virtually impossible that anyone will ever manage the feat in the history of this or any other of the infinite universes that may or may not exist across the space time continuum.
Best Places to Bet on March Madness
Best Places to Watch March Madness
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