Why I Hate March Madness

I hate March Madness. No, this is not an attention grabber headline or a spam email that says "FREE PORN" and then directs you to collect your winnings from the Australian lottery that you somehow won, even though you never left the continental United States. Nope, this is none of that. It is the truth. I really hate March Madness and here are the reasons.

Reason # 1 - Selection Sunday
It's fun to see which schools make it into the tourney, mainly because they have live feeds of pep rallies filled with students who have been drinking since noon on Thursday. I always root for a group of 3 students to break into a funneling contest, the second they find out their school made the tourney. Here's my main beef. CBS stopped showing the reactions of schools who missed the cut. Why? To be sensitive to the students and young athletes. I know, what crap. Think of all the laughs that have just been tossed away. College is supposed to teach you life lessons, and prepare you for the real world. The real world is like the Parker Bros. game of Life. Remember that game? You can be a winner at the game of life. No you can't. There is ONE winner and a bunch of losers. THAT'S LIFE. I just want to see CBS analysts breakdown the replay.

Hey Greg, here is what rejection looks like. You can see here their faces go from joy to pure disappointment once they realize their name wasn't called. That's called the "I still didn't get the promotion?" look. Lots of that in their future. Back to you.

Reason # 2 - Bracketology
I'm all for in depth analysis of teams, and key match ups, but not for all 64 teams. Let's make the cut off the top 20 teams. After that fade to black and end the show. I really do not need to know how #16 seed IUIPUI needs to exploit their opponents pick and roll. No #1 has ever been upset, it doesn't happen. The only way to beat a # 1 seed in the first round is to hope their team bus breaks down and they have to forfeit the game. Ironically enough, that is also the only weakness the Uconn Husky Women's team has had all season. On a side note, ESPN's showed the experts getting together and going through the bracket of 64 for an hour. The first 45 minutes should have made the chopping room floor , because all top seeds somehow made the final four. Thanks, my girlfriend picked the same way but at least she was quiet for the 20 minutes she made her picks.

Reason # 3 - Office Pools
This is the biggest reason why I loathe March Madness. You waste so much work time figuring the best way to win the $5,000 office pool. You constantly watch Digger Phelps and Dickie V break down every game. After ten hours, and approximately 2,000 Yeeeeah Baby's, you have a bracket with a nice balance of upsets and top seeds, and are now legally insane. You feel confident about your sheet, so you hand it in, and proudly pay the $20. You may even throw in a comment like "This is the winning sheet, the rest of you can battle it out for 2nd place," and then give a douchey smile and walk away. Now, lets fast forward two days into the tourney. You look down at your bracket and realize one of your final four teams is gone, another final four team went to OT and just barely survived, you picked the wrong 5 vs. 12 seed upsets, and a # 14 seed, who happens to be a Catholic college, miracled a huge upset win. How ironic!! Making matters worse, the early results come in for the office pool and Kathy, a single mother of three from Logistics, is in the lead. Kathy knows nothing about sports and only entered because you, and a team of buddies, went around forcing women to sign up thinking it would be easy money and make the pot bigger. Now, for no reason at all, your new mission in life is to hate Kathy. You see her leaving work and trying to merge into traffic, and instead of being nice and giving her the quick Hand Wave of Magic to let her merge (which is the highest permission a mortal can give, only God himself can grant anything higher.) You speed up as she tries to pull out, beep your horn and tell her She's # 1 (and not just in the March Madness Office Pool.) Next thing you know, you are at her 5 year old kid's Karate Competition screaming out "PUT HIM IN A BODY BAG JOHNNY" and "SWEEP THE LEG" to whoever is facing her child. You lose touch with reality and it can all be traced back to March Madness, or at least that's what you the judge.

For more on Mike Garb, please visit www.MikeGarb,com and Experience the Funny!! Stay tuned for my first ever podcast called "Mike Garb Plays With Himself" Podcast. You can subscribe on iTunes or visit my website to download it.