Well, the NCAA tournament, otherwise known as "March Madness", has reached the Sweet 16 stage,with only that number of teams remaining out of the original 64. Along the way, there have been a rash of upsets, as top seeded teams have had extreme difficulty surviving up tot his point, and as such, we see a 15 seed, a 12 and 13 and a 9 seed in the Sweet 16. Florida Gulf ?Coast has without a doubt been the "Cinderella" of the tournament thus far, having beaten the 2 seed Georgetown and then overcoming San Diego State in the second round match up. No one would have projected their arrival to this point, and that is what the tournament is about.
Every year, thousands of fans rush to fill out a bracket in the days before the tournament, based on the inexact science of Bracketology. Using pre-assigned seed numbers, fans pick winners out of match ups and thus fill out in advance how far each team will get. Obviously, this is a nearly impossible task to do flawlessly, but in a year like this, especially, it can be guaranteed to throw off more than a few brackets.
While some fans might be very upset about their brackets, the truth remains, that tournaments like this are what makes the Big Dance special. The thrill of small schools triumphing over big schools, of programs winning their first tournament game, that is the stuff of legend. Upsets ensure that fans will see new faces and programs in the big games, instead of the same teams year in and year out. As the next slate of games begins to determine the new champion of college basketball, maybe a few more fans have the option of cheering for the FGCU's of the world.
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