By Jack Perdek

To many, March is only important to them for one reason, their brackets and watching the NCAA March Madness tournament every year.

The month of March for me is one of the best months of the year and that includes the tournament, but it is not necessarily why I would put the month in my top five. March marks the beginning of spring and in most cases, the first official teaser for above 30-degree weather and the endless pursuit of summer. Here at SUNY Oswego, in my four years of attendance, from the months of late November to late March, you deserve a gold medal if you can spot the sun.

Aside from my personal opinion, the other 75% of the American population hangs their hats on Div. I basketball and constructing a tournament bracket. Although this is a fun tradition and a gold mine for people who like to bet on sports, I really have not invested the time to sit down and think about 32 match-ups and how I can brag about my success to people. 

At the same time, you have to consider the athletes and coaches of these college organizations and whether the pressure of the spotlight might actually damage their career more than glorify it. In my mind, teams like the St. Peter’s Peacocks are one of the beneficiaries of mass media attention because they are the 16 seed and were unlikely to do much damage in the round of 64. Then teams like the University of Kentucky, who many like myself thought could cut the nets at the end of the tournament as a number two seed, crumble in the national spotlight.

Now I get it, that is why the tournament is special, but who is thinking about the players who were on the bubble of advancing to the professional level that still had something to prove? With professional broadcast networks giving the unsung heroes more attention, several players who were all-in on major basketball programs may lose their draft stock or worse be forgotten. I guess that is just the glory of March Madness, but I have to ask if the pressure is too great for 18 to 23-year-old players with literally tens of thousands of people in the stands. 

So is the tournament worth the hype? Well, for the most part , my answer is yes, considering I do not play college basketball and that the level of gameplay and competitiveness at the college level is far more entertaining than the NBA. The real question is whether or not the tournament makes the month of March an upper echelon span of 31 days. 

Let us map it out nice and simple; March has Shamrock Shakes, St. Patrick’s Day parades, mother nature’s awakening from a long and painful sleep, and yes a tournament that many sports fans cannot get enough of.

 I still put June, July, August and September way above March because hey, I could go ride a bike or something. 

Photo via Flickr