Why College Basketball is my Favorite Sport

Now that the Super Bowl has ended, and football is done (at least for a few weeks before the focus shifts to pro days and the draft), it’s the annual time of the year where sports fans scramble to find something new to latch onto.  Some people choose the NBA, or the NHL, while others begin to watch college basketball avidly in what begins a scramble to learn as much as possible before March Madness starts.  I find it very unfortunate that the mass majority of sports fans don’t even think about college basketball until February, if they ever do at all.  I think everyone is seriously missing out.

I’ve been watching college basketball since the first week of November.  Since then it’s become nearly a ritual for me to catch a game on weeknights, and load up on Saturdays when games are played all day long.  Why do I put in the effort to watch so college basketball?  It’s because although I really love a lot of sports, including football, basketball, and soccer, college basketball for me just takes the cake.  Here’s why college basketball is my favorite sport, and why I think the entire world should stop ignoring the first two thirds of the season and hop on the bandwagon with me.

Firstly, college basketball is always there.  Seriously, rain or shine, no matter what day of the week it is, there will be games.  And while the same can be said for some sports such as baseball, the sheer number of games played every day in college basketball is remarkable.  Today, Wednesday, is a pretty average day for games.  There’s 48 of them.  Yeah.  That’s what happens when 351 teams play games about twice a week.  Every day becomes game day.  And when there’s 48 games on, you know there’s going to be several good ones.  How many sports can say that several top teams are in good matchups daily?  Even the slowest days of the week have double digit games, and it’s very rare for there to be a day where no ranked teams are in action.  And don’t even get me started on Saturday, when most teams are in action.  For example, there are 144 games to be played this upcoming Saturday.  You can seriously watch basketball from about 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday (that’s central time for me) if you feel like it (and I have sometimes).  To put it simply, there are more games, and better games, in college basketball.  There’s always something to watch, and even if none of the best teams are on, you could always scout some of the better teams from smaller conferences (and sometimes that’s more fun).

The next reason is that every year provides endless possibilities.  I’ll tell you what I mean by that.  In some sports, before the season even starts you have a good idea of who the best teams are, and this list stays pretty accurate for the entire season.  On the other hand, some teams are stuck in a never-ending cycle of losing, and going into the year even their diehard fans have little to look forward to.  In college basketball, that’s simply not the case.  Every year, some of the best teams and best stories come from colleges you don’t even know exist.  Sometimes all it takes is a good coach, one star player, or a few upsets to take a team that no one was talking about to the top.  Jimmer Fredette’s BYU teams come to mind.  Fredette was such a skilled scorer that BYU instantly became one of the most exciting teams in the country to watch, as everyone waited eagerly to see what he would do next.  Gregg Marshall has turned a nobody school like Wichita State into a giant that no one wants to play, just because his coaching style worked so perfectly with the players on his team.  Other examples include Davidson and Butler.  At the same time, some of the top schools will struggle, such as Florida this season, who started the year ranked #7, but are currently 12-10.  Of course, many of the top teams are able to retain strong teams from year to year, which is how their legacies are created.  These are the Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, and Dukes of the world.  Some of the best matchups are between the teams who have always been good and the teams that have seemingly come out of nowhere.

Building on my previous point, a good team can come from anywhere.  Sure, the same conferences you see called the “power 5” in college football have some good basketball programs.  But then again, so does everywhere else.  The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac 12, and SEC have historically been the “power 6” of basketball, but there have always been tons of other teams recognized as being just as good if not better than many teams from power conferences.  In addition, usually the bottom teams from these conferences are no better than slightly above average teams across the nation, and these are the biggest name schools.  But now, the idea that some conferences have huge advantages over others (think the SEC of college football especially), just doesn’t exist.  With all the conference alignment going on recently, the American conference, Atlantic 10, Mountain West, and Missouri Valley have especially jumped out as other quality conference producing several really good teams on a year to year basis, something unheard of in other conference sports.  While only one college football team outside of the power 5 finished the year ranked (Boise State), just this week in college basketball there are four outside of what is dubbed the main 6, with plenty more also receiving votes.  With this increasing number of teams and conferences with great depth, the number of teams that can really get hot and pull off a good stretch of games is increasing rapidly.  The overall quality of basketball is rising, and we are soon approaching a point where most teams have a chance at winning most of the games they play.  There are becoming less and less “sure things”.

Another big plus to college basketball is the schedule.  Firstly, the season length of approximately 30 games is ideal.  Every game really means something, and teams can’t afford to go on big losing streaks, like an NBA or MLB team can.  However, it does give them time to learn and grow as teams, and can be forgiving of a bad loss, unlike college football.  It allows teams to have tons of control over their non-conference schedule, playing a wide variety of opponents (usually around 12-14, compared to college football’s 3), while also being able to play every team in their conference at least once, and in many conferences twice.  Scheduling really matters in college basketball, and it can make or break a season.  The way top college football teams can schedule cupcake games just to go into conference play undefeated can’t occur in basketball because when the selection committee decides which teams make it into March Madness, strength of schedule is one of the main factors they look at.  This encourages teams to play highly competitive games in the non-conference, pitting great teams against each other with the goal of increasing RPI, strength of schedule, and adding quality wins to one’s tournament resume.  Great teams from less recognizable conferences have to really schedule well, as they won’t get as many big games in their conference, and losses to teams in the Sun Belt, for example, are much worse than losses to Big 12 teams.  So, these schools must schedule tough teams as well in order to give them chances to have big games to bolster their chances at an at-large bid into March Madness.  No matter how you look at it, the non-conference schedule is crucial, and has made and messed up many teams.

Within the conference, teams are not only sparring for bragging rights and 1st place, but for top seeds in their conference tournaments, where they can win an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.  This added incentive to each game increases the level of competition and reinforces the fact that teams need to give their all every time they step on the court.  Oh, and by the way, rivalries.  Duke and North Carolina get to play each other twice a year, and the same goes for Kansas and Kansas State, Kentucky and Florida, and many others. The way the schedule is set up encourages the creation of intriguing matchups that make the entire season interesting.

One of the biggest reasons that I love college basketball is that the atmosphere of the games is addicting.  Every game is so important to these players, and you can see them giving it their all on every single play.  The effort everyone gives and how much passion they have for the game exceeds that of any other sport.  It genuinely seems that every player plays every game as if it were their last, because if they get injured it very well may be.  Unlike professional sports, they aren’t getting paid, and their future isn’t guaranteed.  For 98% of them, this is the end of their playing careers, and for 100% of them, they play for the love of the game.  The celebrations are incredible, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  The same can be said for the looks of heartbreak and disappointment after losing a close game.  College basketball fans go absolutely mental throughout each and every contest, with relentless chanting and support.  Each school’s band is completely immersed in the game, and no matter who’s playing, there’s an almost indescribable sense of pure thrill and emotion that runs wild in these gyms.  When you see a team knock down a buzzer-beater three to win the game, and the bench starts screaming and jumping up and down, the entire team creates a dog pile on top of the hero of the day, the fans storm the court, the announcers can’t catch their breaths, and the opposing team is filled with looks of agony and disgust, you’ll know what I mean.

Finally, we’ve reached my final reason that college basketball is my favorite sport, and sorry for the cliche, but I’ve saved the best for last.  I could’ve summed up this entire post in two words, because everything I’ve talked about contributes to this phenomenon:  MARCH MADNESS.  The single, undoubtedly best annual sports event on the face of the Earth.  No questions asked.  The first weekend of March Madness, and especially the first two days, could quite possibly be my favorite days of the year, right up there with Christmas.  The entire regular season is just a numbers game to accumulate enough wins, a higher RPI and BPI, SOS, and quality wins, and anything else that can get you into the big dance, because when the madness starts, anything can happen.  The 68 team, three-week tournament symbolizes everything I love about sports including close and competitive games, upsets no one sees coming, pure passion, and people being brought together.  This tournament has produced some of the best moments in sports history, and every year it continues to amaze.

Hopefully I’ve convinced you of how great college basketball can be.  If not, just watch some for yourself- I swear it’s addicting.