Selection Sunday: A Day like no other

Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis is
the site of this year's Final Four.

The NCAA tournament is the best postseason tournament in all of sports.  The continual unpredictability of the three-week event is what makes it madness.  It all begins on Selection Sunday where in just a couple hours we will hear the field of 68.  Conference tournaments around the country are finishing up and tickets are being punched. This is when you know…it’s March.

There’s a constant buzz when you’re flipping channels on Selection Sunday watching the end of the conference tournaments.  Some teams are stealing bids, some are making their final statements before the big dance, while others are sweating it out until the evening hope their season was good enough for an at-large bid.

In recent years ESPN has released a new 30 for 30 after the selection show and after its analysts break down the field.  One year it was “The Fab Five”, last year it was “Requiem for the Big East”, and tonight it is “I Hate Christian Laetner”.  That adds to the excitement for me along with filling out my bracket, which I almost always start right after the Selection Show.

Then comes to waiting game.  To me the tournament always starts on Thursday.  I know there are two games on Tuesday and two games on Wednesday but to me those “First Four” games in Dayton are a tease.  I’m a fan of a 64-team field with no games until Thursday.  The play-in games don’t add much for me.  Granted Virginia Commonwealth made a run to the Final Four as a “First Four” team three years ago but to me if you can’t get in as one of the first 64 teams, you don’t belong in the tournament.  So to me Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are quite the drag before things get going in earnest on Thursday.

But Selection Sunday certainly isn’t a drag.  Most of the conference tournament championship games keep you on the edge of your seat much like the Selection Show and seeing the bracket revealed and ESPN always reminds you how great March Madness is with a new 30 for 30 after the Selection Show.  It’s a day of anticipating the best postseason tournament in all of sports and it’s worth enjoying because once the madness starts, it doesn’t stop.