March is always an exciting time of the year. The beginning of spring, baseball and the biggest basketball tournament outside of the NBA – March Madness. Across the country you will find all different types of people filling in their brackets and losing their mind over an upset. So why do people get so worked up over a sport that they might not even watch until the postseason starts?

Nothing is more exciting than a large tournament consisting of different teams from different areas. The men’s and women’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments each start with 68 colleges. Each team is put into the bracket using the “seeds” that were given to them based on their regular season performances. One thing that also makes the tournament exciting is its single-game elimination format, which creates a chance for anything to happen.

Everyone loves an underdog and the chance for a team ranked lower to beat a top seed. Upsets are one of the best parts about the madness, as they can create stories that stay in the minds of fans forever. These runs are labeled as “Cinderella stories,” with a few notable ones such as St. Peters in 2022 or Florida Atlantic in 2023. 

But the underdogs aren’t the only ones who have something to prove. Whether or not they are the favorites to win most matchups, 1 and 2 seeds are the ones that have worked the hardest to earn those high rankings. Many of those teams also need to redeem themselves from previous years when they have underperformed.

One team that fits the category is Purdue. In the last five years of the tournament (not including the 2020 canceled bracket), Purdue has been ranked at least a top four seed but hasn’t reached the national championship or even a Final Four. Even for being such a prestigious program, the Boilermakers have never won a national title. This leaves them as a team who, sure is ranked higher than most opponents, but also is an underdog due to their willingness to choke in the bracket.

Well having a team to root for helps viewership of the games, but completely different reasons provide for the high number of created brackets . There are many different factors that contribute to the over 22 million brackets created for the men’s tournament, and the 3 million created for the women’s, but I think there’s one that stands out. People want to pick a side, and they want that side to win. Whether you’ve watched 50 regular season games, or haven’t watched a single one, everybody has access to the bracket challenge, and there’s a chance for anyone to get that perfect bracket. That’s what gives people like me the spirit to participate in watching the games and cheering for random colleges they’ve never heard of.

Altogether, March Madness is a great way to end a sports season. A record 9 million people watched the first two rounds of the men’s tournament. So many storylines can create great moments for casual and super fans of basketball. The tournament has already begun, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start watching teams to decide your picks next year. Who knows, maybe you can create the perfect bracket next year.