I don't give a flying fuck about college basketball for the most part, but I, like most of the betesticled population of the U.S.A. love March Madness. Why? Well, as it happens, I have a theory about this: it's a two parter.
First, it's like one of those cheeseball '80s and '90s mixed marshal arts movies where they invite all these super badass ninja types (and one American, i.e. the Good Guy, i.e. Jean Claude Van Dam or Dolph Lundgren - don't worry, the irony will roundhouse kick you in the face in about a second) to fight it out to the death in a single elimination tournament. If you get sonned by the fat sumo dude or the hot gymnast assassin chick, then you end up in a pit of spikes or having your spine ripped out. The NCAA tournament is much like this, except the losers squirt a few tears and then tear up the hotel bar. The drama, especially in the later rounds, is fantastic, especially as the Cinderellas, those low seeded squads that inevitably squeeze their way at least into the Sweet Sixteen, grapple to the death with a Duke or a UConn; truly there are few greater David and Goliath stories that the no-name liberal arts college with a gym (literally, a gym) that houses 5,000 fans going head-to-head with a basketball factory that is basically an NBA farm team.
Second, along with the vaunted (and far stupider) Super Bowl pool, the NCAA tournament pool is the premier layman's gambling event of the year. The permutations in a field of 64 teams are virtually limitless (well, obviously there are finite number of outcomes), and fate is so capricious that the seasoned fan is often on equal footing with the mom who chips in five bucks because everyone else in the office is playing and then picks winners based on where her friends went to college or what state she would like to live in. It allows you a rooting interest regardless of your legitimate collegiate affiliation, and opens the door for vicarious triumph by sheer luck plus the winning of a significant chunk of money.
Also, during the first two rounds anyway, it's the most bewildering event to watch drunk, as they're constantly flipping back and forth between games and you can't possibly follow what the hell is going on.
