Dear Diary: What Keeps the Madness Alive?

For some, the Road to Detroit ended in Minneapolis. I must count myself in that contingent. Granted, I do not play basketball. My hand eye coordination is minimal at best. However, I have had the privilege of being selected as a one of 30 band members to go on the road with the USC Men’s Basketball Team in the post season the past three years (Which is the first time in the school’s history that the basketball team has received three straight bids to the NCAA tournament). After an exciting, emotional run in the Pacific 10 Tournament that found the USC Trojans as Pacific 10 Champions for the first time in school history, this blogger found herself eating her words. After exploring for, and arguing in favor of, the NIT only a short time ago, I sighed in relief to know that we would not be going. Along with the championship trophy, came an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. They also brought yours truly along for the ride. From defeating UCLA in Staples Center to finally falling to Michigan State in the Metrodome (Pictured left), I was able to witness the phenomena as a not so quiet fly on the wall. Finally, I had to wonder what held it all together. Year after year, these tournaments take place with a high degree of success no matter who is left standing at the very end. The answer lied within my own university, within my very own team in fact. It was simple: Pure loyalty. It is a multi dimensional loyalty carefully balanced in a symbiotic relationship between teams, fans and university spirit groups that create and uphold this highly successful tournament system. Though nothing, not even this system, is perfect, when it does come together as planned, there is no wonder why we call this event “March Madness.” Let me take you now, on my journey so you can truly understand why I conclude that loyalty is the most important factor in this tournament.

Before the NCAA makes it selections, the conference tournaments must take place and declare a winner that will receive the only official automatic berth into the tournament. This year, this was USC’s only chance of making it to the post season. After a midseason slump and one too many a loss the chance of actually winning three straight games against ranked opponents, including rival UCLA, seemed slim at best. However a little determination, and desperation, goes along way. Injury free and tournament bound, the Trojans relied on every group’s greatest weapon: teamwork. The loyalty to the team over oneself is the main catalyst of the tournament. “One and done” wonders and leading scorers can only carry you so far. When the Michigan State shut down Taj Gibson in the 2nd round, the Trojans stayed in the game by relying on Daniel Hackett and Dwight Lewis to pick up the scoring slack and make up for the fact that Gibson managed to score only three points the whole game. They still came extremely close to beating Michigan State. Had they relied one player whether it had been Gibson, or freshman DeMar DeRozan it would have been detrimental to their success. Former NBA great David Robinson explains teamwork as such: “Each player contributes his own gifts and efforts so that the great goal–winning–can be reached. But players who seek their own glory at the sacrifice of the team’s glory drive the team away from success.” The Trojans stayed loyal to each other and thus found success in both tournaments.

What, however, is a tournament, if no one watches? The NCAA picks neutral sites. Though a high seed may get the advantage of staying within their region, no one gets a true home court advantage in the post season. To help create the allusion of a home court advantage and thus give your team the upper hand, fans must travel. The tournament counts on the fact that certain fans will travel in large groups, spending their precious dollars on tickets and merchandise. Fan loyalty not only helps create the home court advantage for the teams, but revenue for the NCAA. And if it weren’t for all the revenue the NCAA was making off those loyal fans, they wouldn’t have the money to charter a flight for every team and their respective pep bands and cheerleaders, put them up in a nice hotel, provide free meals for the team and per diem ($ 40 a day) for the spirit groups and still have enough to pay everyone running the tournament itself. Though this is not the only way the tournament makes money (We can’t forget the ever lucrative television contracts and advertisements), this is the sort of loyalty that literally keeps the tournament up and running.

That being said, it is known throughout the collegiate world that certain fans are more loyal than others. Though schools that draw larger crowds can more than make up for others in sales, it leaves teams with fewer crowds without even the chance of any sort of home court advantage. That is where university loyalty is key. The NCAA does pay for a certain amount of band members and other spirit groups to fly out with the team, but it takes a group of dedicated members to give up either the very beginning or very end of their spring break for it to actually become a reality. Good bye Cabo. Good bye Palm Springs. Hello Minneapolis: Home of the Mall of America, the Golden Gophers, and really not much else. Nonetheless, I, along with some of my cohorts (Such as the Song Girls and Spirit Leaders pictured below) packed our bags and flew from 80 degree Los Angeles to 40 degree Minneapolis to partake in something bigger than ourselves. After spending the semester studying rhetoric, I noticed how each school’s band and spirit groups helped create a narrative by which all the fans and/or players understood. “Rock Chalk Jay Hawk” has no meaning to me, but when fans chanted it, helped invigorate the Kansas players and intimidate the opposing Dayton Flyers. Likewise, playing “Tribute to Troy” signaled to our opponents that USC had arrived, but more over, it is known throughout the USC community as inspiration. The understanding between university members creates maybe not the most important loyalty of the tournament, but be assured, it is the strongest.

Inter-team loyalty. Fan loyalty. University loyalty. The interdependency of this entire entity is what makes the NCAA tournament as successful as it is. Of course there are lucrative television contracts, ad sales, sponsorships and pools in Las Vegas betting on each game, but that can all exist because of this basic element. Whether it makes a team strong enough to reach the tournament beyond all odds or makes the Metrodome feel like the Galen Center, it all comes to down to a special symbiotic relationship that might not make the world go round, but it keeps “the madness” alive.