Top Five Reasons March Madness Is Awesome, Baby!

1. Twelve-hour days of basketball
The first weekend of the tournament, you have games that start at noon and continue throughout the day, virtually without interruption. And unlike the NFL Playoffs (or even the NBA or MLB playoffs, for the most part), there are multiple games going on at the same time. If your scheduled game is a blowout, the network will switch to something more exciting.

2. The little guys run with the big dogs
Unlike the BCS, where you pretty much have to be a member of the six power conferences to even get a sniff at major bowl game, teams from the mid-major and minor conferences enter the NCAA's on equal footing with the big boys. As a result, you can have schools like Gonzaga make the Elite Eight and George Mason make the Final Four. Theoretically speaking, and one of the 65 times has a chance to win the national title.

3. It's win or go home
Compare March Madness with college football bowls: You lose a mid-level bowl game and your season is done. You win a mid-level bowl game and your season is done. The incentive just isn't there, especially since exactly two teams (maybe three) have a shot at the national championship. In college basketball, there's always something left to, always another opponent waiting for you in two days time. Every game could be you last, but none of them (before the final) ever has to be.

4. It's all about the games, not the money
March Madness is an incredible financial enterprise. Yet, unlike the BCS which slaps a corporate sponsor on everything to try to squeeze as much money as possible out of the games they put on (and the games are often ancillary to the parades, banquets, and tailgate parties that take place), March Madness does everything possible to distance itself from corporate interests and even the professional sports teams that call the host arenas home. The games are the events themselves. There are no fancy introductions. There are no million-dollar shots or Ashlee Simpson performances at halftime. The entertainment is provided by the cheerleaders and the bands. And the championship trophy is presented by the NCAA President, not the Senior Vice President of Marketing.

5. Things are settled on the court
You don't need a panel of experts and a bunch of computers to decide who will face off for the national title. You let the games speak for themselves. Yeah, there's a human factor involved in the selection of the at-large teams and the seeding, but it's not like Syracuse really had the chance of winning the national title this year anyway. And, if you manage to win six straight games, nobody else can say that they were more deserving but didn't get a chance since the pollsters wouldn't vote their way.