Forget the NCAA Tournament, It's the Small Ones that Make Up March

Forget about the big, huge, major, 65-team field NCAA tournament that comes up in late March. That's only a small part of the month that is March Madness. The majority of the madness comes from the tournaments before the tournament.

The automatic bid tournaments!

Let's face it, of the 65 teams that get into the tournament, no more than a quarter of them have a legitimate chance of winning the title (and while Memphis is included in that top quarter, I don't think they'll win!). And while I understand that it is everyone's goal to win the national championship; realistically speaking, most of the teams that make the tournament know they are fighting some unbeatable odds.

So what is the majority of the other 75% of the field hoping for most of the season, if winning the NCAA tournament isn't all that realistic?

They just want to make the big dance!

Thus, while the "big" dance is more important in the grand scheme of things, most players in college basketball get their biggest high off being able to do a little dance after they win their conference championship and earn an automatic bid into the NCAA tourney!

Those 10 or so days that span "Championship Week" offer far more entertainment than those first 4 days of the big dance. First of all, there are ten days full of basketball, which is much more than twice what you'll get from the big tourney! I can't give you a count, but I assure you that there are more games in those 10 days than there are in the initial weekend of the NCAA tourney where there are 48 games. Also, the games go on all day. Anytime between Noon and 2 AM you can turn on your television and find either an A-10 Conference tournament game in the afternoon, or a WAC conference tournament game late at night.

Secondly, if you think there isn't the same "do or die" element in these smaller conference tourneys, then you are mistaken. I'll assume you already know that most of these teams are playing not just to make the tourney, but that they are also trying not to end their seasons since most of them won't get "at-large" bids like BCS conference schools. One element you may not have taken into account is that these schools in small conferences have many more seniors than the major conference schools, because most of their players play all 4 years. Thus, you probably end up seeing more emotion in these games than you do in the big tournament, because of the finality of it all and there being a greater number of seniors.

Lastly, in conference tournaments you'll see a whole lot of players that you've never seen before, and you'll never see them again. But as you watch certain players as they progress through all of those tournament games, you'll begin to fall in love with their passion for basketball. They just want to make the big tournament and feel like they truly had the full college basketball experience. And isn't that really what college basketball is supposed to be about?