The month of March does not only signal the arrival of spring, to many sports fans around the globe, it also rhymes with March Madness. Created in 1939 by Ohio State coach Harold Olsen, this tournament has become one of the most famous sporting events in the United States. It gathers the best male and female NCAA athletes in North America.

Millions of sports fans around the globe join the madness and numerous sports betting fans spend countless hours coming up with strategies to find the perfect bracket. Yet, none of them ever succeed. And according to a recent study, it seems almost laughably improbable with odds of around 1.6 million to one. Any reason why? March Madness is as unpredictable as the weather.

Whether you are a passionate basketball fan, or this tournament is your introduction to this beautiful sport, March Madness has something for everyone. Underdog teams rise, athletes make unimaginable plays, and legends are born.

If you haven’t joined the madness already, here are four reasons why you should.

 

4. Keeps Our Minds Off the Global Crisis

This last year has been challenging for everyone. We have had to learn to live wearing a mask in public, limit our gatherings, and some of us have had to learn to work remotely. The list of things that this global crisis took from us could go on forever. March Madness is by far the greatest distraction during the month of March.

3. March Madness Cinderella

Who doesn’t like a good Cinderella story? Every year a low seeded team catches the basketball world by surprise. A team no one expected to be taken seriously beats the odds and writes its own story.

More recently, the Loyola Ramblers come to mind. The Ramblers played hard as a team and it paid off as they pulled off upset after upset until they eventually lost to Miami.

2. The Challenge of Predictions

With 68 teams competing in this single-elimination tournament, it is almost impossible to make any sort of predictions. In this case, impossible sounds about right. The chances of correctly picking all 63 games at random are a ridiculous one in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. That’s 9.2 quintillion.

The fact that teams are eliminated the moment they lose a game keeps the intensity at a high-level.  There is no second chance. Athletes leave it all on the court hoping to make it to the next round. As a sports fan, isn’t that what we enjoy the most, watching the best athletes compete at the highest level when the stakes are at the highest?

 

1. Watch Future Legends

March Madness is the perfect moment to watch future NBA stars give us a glimpse of their potential. Some NBA legends have even made their mark during March Madness before moving on to the big league. Remember a certain Michael Jordan? How about Magic Johnson and Larry Bird?

Before March Madness, no one suspected Stephen Curry to be anywhere near the superstar athlete he has become. Then, 2008 happened. He poured in 25.9 points per night and buried 162 triples at a 43.9 percent clip. The rest is history as they say.

March Madness is the window that enables future stars to shine the brightest and it contains as much drama as an Oscar-winning flick. What will it be this year?

Statistics provided by Betway.