For a few weeks in the spring every year, it doesn’t matter what grade or friend group you’re in, or even if you have basketball knowledge, because March Madness brings all students together.
Students who rarely speak to each other find themselves in enthusiastic conversations about which teams they have in their final four, which upsets they chose, and which team they think will make a Cinderella run. Classrooms turn into watch parties, lunch spots double as places of debate and hallways buzz with excitement. The tournament is about bringing people together just as much as the games.
It all starts with Selection Sunday, when the 64-team bracket is revealed, and students quickly rush to create brackets. The hunt for a perfect bracket has never been achieved by anyone, with the odds being somewhere around one in 9.2 quintillion, according to the NCAA. For this reason, students often create the maximum number of brackets that certain websites allow. “ESPN only lets you make 25 brackets, so I made a bunch of new accounts to make more. In total, I made 275 brackets,” senior Evan Bush said.
With the first games beginning in the middle of the school day, this year on Thursday, Mar. 20 at 12:15 p.m., classrooms often become places where students secretly watch the games together, or sneakily glance at their phones to check the scores. While the teachers of these classes may not always appreciate this, students are willing to risk getting caught in order to enjoy the games with their peers. “In eighth period, during math, my friend, seated in front of a bunch of us, had one of the games up on his chromebook, hiding it behind someone’s back who was in front of him. We were watching it for most of the class until he got caught a few minutes before the bell rang. The teacher got a little upset at him, but it was worth it,” junior Kioko Kibua said.
Even after brackets begin to bust, and people’s chances of getting the first perfect bracket are spoiled, there’s always another reason to stay fully invested. Students often root for their hometown team, a team with family ties, or an underdog with the odds stacked against them. When a low-seeded, small school upsets a top-ranked team, the entire world seems to rally behind them. “I didn’t even know Oakland was a college before they won versus Kentucky last year, but after they won, everyone, including me, was rooting for them in the next round,” junior Nigel Gbekie said.
Beyond the actual tournament, March Madness creates new connections throughout the entire school. It offers students an outlet and a break from the stress of school, allowing them to come together over something exciting. “It gives us all something else to talk about and connect over other than school…People I don’t even talk to normally end up talking with me about the games and who they think is going to win the championship,” sophomore Joe Waldron said.
