RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
College basketball fans, you are not alone. Commentator Frank Deford is also looking forward to March Madness.
FRANK DEFORD: This has probably been the most - well, let's be kind and just say ordinary - the most ordinary college basketball season. First of all, as the Super Bowl drifts into February and NFL television ratings soar, poor little college basketball gets ignored for longer and longer. Didn't you have the feeling this year that Dick Vitale didn't arrive in our consciousness until, like a bald cupid on Valentine's Day?
And there have been no outstanding teams and only one player who's caught anybody's attention. That's Jimmer Fredette of Brigham Young. Of course, it helps that he has a neat name and is white, which is always a novelty when it comes to good American basketball players.
But notwithstanding that college basketball has not only been under the radar but outside the tweet this season, suddenly this Sunday, when 68 mostly unknown teams are slotted for the NCAA tournament, millions of citizens will rediscover the game and fill out their brackets.
Why is March Madness so popular?
Well, I believe the main reason is a simple one. It's the largest national single-elimination competition anywhere in the world. Every game, all 67 of them, the losing team is sent home. Season over, voted off the island. TKO: Team Knocked Out. In a nation that prides itself on second chances, there are none.
Likewise, while the soccer World Cup starts off with a round robin, it really grabs the globe once single-elimination begins. Our professional football is too brutal to have anything but one-game showdowns, but nothing is more popular. And do you remember last year when the U.S. and Canada played for the Olympic hockey gold medal? One game, Americans who didn't know a hockey puck from a badminton birdie got hooked. One game, winner-take-all, losers walk.
Has either the National Hockey League or the National Basketball Association ever pondered this: A one-game championship? Sure, for the early rounds, play those interminable seven-game series where the same two teams give us athletic Groundhog Days. But when you get to the finals: One game, scheduled in advance, neutral site.
Can you imagine it? Kobe Bryant versus LeBron James, just one time. I guarantee you that that single-elimination game would bring more attention and more profit to the NBA or the NHL, than those protracted series do now. Less is more.
But for now, ladies and gentlemen, if you will just come into the tent, college basketball is finally about to begin again.
MONTAGNE: The comments of Frank Deford, who joins us each Wednesday.
Copyright © 2011 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.