It’s that time of year–March Madness. It’s a big deal around our house, filling out our brackets and hoping our picks end with bragging rights for the coming year. That’s what happens when you have five competitive people who have played/watched a lot of basketball and enjoy the nature of college sports. But this year there’s a new twist: three of us have a vested interest in not one but two of the teams!
Our youngest is in his sophomore year at Baylor University. Baylor has made a few showings at the NCAA tournament in the past few years and this is their second appearance in the two years he’s been a student there. This gives our son a new level of excitement and interest in the brackets, but also that age-old dilemma of having to eventually choose your team as the loser. But when? Sweet Sixteen? Elite Eight? Or do you push all the way to the Final Four?
In the meantime, hubby and I are ecstatic that our SMU Mustangs have reached the tournament again for the first time in many years. (They should have received a bid last year, but don’t get me started on that!) We have good memories of going to basketball games while I was finishing my undergraduate degree and he was in law school. And so we are ready to “pony up” and cheer for our alma mater. But again, we face the same agonizing situation as our son–how far do you actually pick your team to go?
Thankfully, Baylor and SMU are in different quadrants of the bracket. It is almost impossible that they would meet, so at least we don’t have to go head-to-head. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be trash talk–especially if one team progresses deeper into the bracket than the other.
What about you? Does March Madness cause any extra excitement at your house?