Reminder that brackets close in two short hours. If you haven’t joined the
group yet, now is the time!
On Mon, Mar 14, 2022 at 1:07 PM Boniface, Annie <anneboniface(a)g.harvard.edu>
wrote:
Hello history friends and associates!
Welcome to a truly magical time of year: NCAA's March Madness. Scroll to
the bottom for directions on joining the Harvard History bracket
tournament, *but before that*, please enjoy the following explanation of
this time-honored tradition from our very own Cam Elliott:
March Madness is Decadent and Depraved
Sporting events are (and perhaps more particularly, betting on them is)
built on ritual and superstition.
College Basketball in this country is a lot like the professional game.
Three pointers reign supreme, the court is the same size, and the referees
never seem quite sure of what a travel is. The only real differences are
they play 2 halves instead of 4 quarters, they have 6 extra seconds on the
shot clock, the three point line is closer, only 5 personal fouls get you
ejected, and the athletes are unpaid.
Every year 68 teams get to go to the “Big Dance.” Our students actually
have the chance to make the tournament, at least the ones that play
basketball (although this year Yale is in instead). 32 of those teams won
their conference (hence Yale); only about 8 of the conferences are good
enough to expect much. The other 36 “bids” as they’re colloquially known
are passed out to teams who, despite losing their conference tournament,
are deemed good enough to play by a selection committee made up of sports
journalists and other (non) luminaries. Teams are awarded a “seed” when
they are named to the tournament ranging from 1 (the highest) to 16 (the
lowest) and there are four of each seed. The other 4 teams have a play in
and won’t amount to much.
I remember reading an article some time that argued the reason why soccer
hadn’t caught on in America—at least not as a spectator sport, god knows
enough children play it—was because Americans love an underdog and in top
flight soccer the better team almost always wins. March Madness is not like
that. Well not really. It is single elimination so the better team
certainly doesn’t always win. But there are a few rules. One seeds don’t
lose to sixteen seeds, except that one glorious game where the Retrievers
beat the Wahoos like they stole something. It wasn’t even close. There’s
always supposed to be a 5-12 upset. Beyond that there is little to go by.
The emergent “science” of Bracketology is little more than divination by
sports shouting blowhards.
Basketball, like many other sports, tracks so many statistics that the
would be gambler has seemingly infinite resources at their disposal.when I
was a kid there were 5, 6 stats tops. No matter how meticulous one is in
their research, you will be proven wrong. No one has ever filled out a
perfect bracket. You will not be the first. And there will always be
miracles, a Cinderella run that busts everyone’s brackets like Davidson
with Steph Curry or Butler or those aforementioned UMBC Retrievers. Fans
live and die with their teams (figuratively and, in Sister Jean’s case at
Chicago Loyola, maybe literally).
For schools, it’s big business. Even a March madness appearance, much less
success in the tournament, can increase applications and enrollment
numbers. Then there’s merchandise and then deals. And now that American
sports have made a full-throated investment in gambling, join us in part of
the $9 billion+ wagered annually in the event.
So partake in this strange American tradition and fill out a bracket. You
pick teams you expect to win as they advance through cleverly and
alliteratively named stages like the sweet sixteen, elite eight, and final
four. Knowledge about the sport not required (and, in most cases, only a
hindrance).
*Now, some directions:*
1. follow this link to ESPN's tournament challenge site for the men's
bracket
https://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2022/en/group?redirec…
and this link for the women's bracket
https://fantasy.espn.com/tournament-challenge-bracket-women/2022/en/group?e…
(you are encouraged to make brackets for both!)
2. click "create a bracket now"
3. create a free ESPN account (if you don't already have one)
4. make your picks! this is easier to do on a big screen
5. *join our group "History x Harvard x Hoops" - password: robinson*
6. watch the ~madness~ play out starting Thursday!
**brackets can only be submitted before the round of 64 begins on
Thursday**
Bonus: the department is providing a Coop gift card and new history tote
bag to the winners of our brackets!
Here are some resources for those of us who have not experienced March
Madness before:
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/bracketiq/2022-03-14/what-march-ma…
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2022-03-13/march-madness-p…
Please reach out with any questions! And good luck!!
Annie Boniface
Co-President, HGSA
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