March Madness: Exploring the Psychology Behind the College Hoops Mania
When college basketball tournaments begin, the commonly used name of March Madness begins to take root, but what is it about this time of year which causes the mania for college hoops?
Sports fandom is an odd and sometimes inexplicable beast, but the month of March takes hold of even the most casual sports fan in ways that even the NFL can’t compete. It’s tournament time, and with it comes March Madness – a psychological phenomenon unlike anything else.
So what is it about the month-long spree of basketball tournaments which can turn even the most stoic and disinterested cube-farm Dilberts into rabid bracket-watchers?
Dr. Kristin Dieffenbach is an executive board member at the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, and she was kind enough to share a few thoughts on the psychology of fandom and what drives the obsession behind March Madness.
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“People often have a very strong, visceral connection to their local teams or their college team,” Dr. Dieffenbach said in a phone interview. “It’s a very strong and powerful connection people have. So there’s a lot of emotion and there’s a lot of anxiety, and all of this builds up around big events.”
People who loyally follow any sport, in any league, can fall under the spell of fandom and what Dieffenbach calls the “crowd mentality” which drives fans to participate in behaviors that they might not otherwise engage.
Your timid co-worker in the next cubicle – who rarely has the courage to raise a question during a staff meeting – might take on a completely different persona when surrounded by others wearing the same team colors and expressing themselves in a variety of…interesting…ways.
“We also see that sometimes it’s a bit of an excuse for expressing some of those behaviors as you get into the crowd mentality kind of thing, where people do things in large groups that they wouldn’t do on their own, you know like, permission by group.”
This mentality of psychological permission by association isn’t uncommon in sports fans. There’s a reason why events like the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals and college football bowl games are some of most watched and highly profitable programming options that exist. Watchers gather in packs, even if only casually, to tap into that connection between fan and team.
But if fans have no real stake in the team other than being a follower – no ownership or hardened financial interest (beyond the money possibly laid down in a wager) – why does this connection become as strong as it does?
Dr. Dieffenbach sees it a little differently.
“I would argue that they do feel they have ownership,” she stated. “A lot of people feel that this is my team. I am a fan of this team. This is my team and this team is representing me, whether it be my alma mater or my town or my city.
“They do feel a very strong sense of community property, this is part of my identity, not just a team that I follow. That gets very strong, particularly with college teams.”
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Which brings us to March Madness. A month filled with conference tournaments, underdogs, upsets, Cinderella stories and the quest to be a part of the magic known as the Final Four.
Unlike other sports – even college football – you have a gargantuan leap in the number of fans who show zero interest during the regular season and then become fixated on the sport when the calendar flips from February to March.
Brackets and viewing parties become more common than spreadsheets and conference calls, and drops in office productivity are all too common. Fox Sports reported that, in 2016, it was estimated the total loss of productivity in America approached $4 billion.
There are a number of factors which can contribute to this sports nonpareil, and they all seem to come together for a potent witches brew when it comes to college hoops.
“I think you have a really interesting blend of some brilliant marketing, an exciting fast-paced game that tends to have very high scores, a lot of volatility in the Cinderella teams and the underdogs…you’ve got a lot of exciting elements to it,” Dieffenbach said. “You also have a lot of games in a very short period of time and there’s always something going on.
“Also, people like to be a part of it. They’re not directly a part of the team, but they’re part of the pools, part of the predictions. They’re competing against each other for those pools, and people like to compete, especially sports people and sports-minded people.”
They say variety is the spice of life, and certainly March Madness has no shortage of variety. With championships for 32 different conferences spanning across the United States on the line, followed by a field of 68 teams that could represent anything from most obscure team residing in the smallest conference in the nation all the way up to the basketball powerhouses, there’s something for everyone.
We get the element of surprise. Teams who no one expects to topple giants doing just that. Blue-blood rivalries that spill over into the tournaments and build an even more volatile environment. All of these things add into creating the madness of March.
So when tournament time rolls around, according to Dr. Dieffenbach we have community pride, a sense of belonging, a connection to a team, and the element of human competition both on the court and between fans all combining and connecting in our brains to create this insatiable need to watch and participate.
Yes, even when we are woefully disinterested for the entirety of the regular season.
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For this reason, the sport of college basketball is like no other. So let your brain soak it all in. Wear your colors to the office, take off those headphones and cheer loudly as you stream games and agonize over your brackets. It’s March Madness, and we all have to own it.
You can listen to the entire interview with Dr. Kristen Dieffenbach here.