Madness

No, by my title I'm not referring to the British band best remembered for their song "Our House," though that's worth a listen.

Rather, I'm referring to the fact that today the NCAA men's basketball tournament begins.  For nearly 25 years, this has been one of my most favorite days of the year, and I'm not alone.  For folks who follow men's college basketball, the prospect of a full day's worth of basketball beginning just after noon Eastern time and ending more than 12 hours later, followed by another day of the same thing, filled with dramatic games, incredible upsets, and season-ending competition is delightfully entertaining.  That's exactly how I've felt over the past decade and a half, and it's how I want to feel today.

However, like my choice to give up college football in 2012, I've decided this season to give up men's college basketball.  I think there is a very legitimate place for men's basketball on college campuses.  Basketball can be a very enjoyable game to watch and/or to play, and it can be played on an intercollegiate level in a very reasonable way that is conducive to community development while not requiring an amount of resources that burdens the institution.

Yet, particularly after writing my most recent book chapter, I've come to feel that men's college basketball occupies too much of an unreasonable position at enough institutions.  At many institutions, men's college basketball asks for an inordinate amount of resources and often commands an inordinate amount of influence.  So, while I have remained peripherally informed about men's college basketball this season, I have generally chosen not to watch or follow the sport.  At times, this has been difficult.  Over the past two weeks in particular I wanted very strongly to turn on numerous conference tournament games.  However, but for seeing a few moments here and there, I refrained, and I will be doing the same today and throughout the NCAA men's tournament.  While in past years I would fill out not only an NCAA men's basketball bracket, but also an NIT bracket, a CBI bracket, and a CIT bracket, this year I have done none of them.  While in past years, I would have turned my television (or the CBS Sports website) on around noon on Thursday and sought to have men's basketball on whenever I could that day and the following three days, this year I will not be watching.  While in past years, I would have been thrilled that my major conference team of choice -- Michigan State -- is a favorite (even President Obama picked them), this year, as hard as it will be, I will not be monitoring their games, and I will know only peripherally how they have done.

Meanwhile, women's basketball typically shares a facility with men's basketball at colleges and universities, and thus it might be part of the same problem as the men's game, given that the resources devoted to basketball arenas constitutes a major part of what I see as the problem. I feel confident, though, that with a very few possible exceptions (and even then, given the types of media coverage and exposure, these don't really appear to be exceptions) women's basketball is not driving the inordinacy of athletics' influence and use of resources at colleges and universities.  So, I will find the pleasure that I usually derive from men's basketball in women's basketball (which I like better anyway).  I have filled out my bracket and entered a couple pools for the NCAA women's basketball tournament.  I will, when possible, be putting the women's NCAA tournament on my television or computer.  And though I am disappointed that my favorite team -- Bowling Green -- barely missed the NCAA tournament, I will follow along as best I can as the Falcons play in the Women's NIT, starting with a home game against High Point in Bowling Green tonight.

As for men's basketball, like football, perhaps it can reenter my life some day, and I don't think men's basketball has as many obstacles as football does to do so.  For the time being, though, the most salient "March madness" would seem to be the madness of the resources and influence that men's basketball receives, and that's a madness in which I do not care to participate.