| {{B}} March
Madness{{/B}} For the rest of the month, an epidemic (流行病) will sweep across the US. It will keep kids home from school. College students will ignore piles of homework. Employees will suddenly lose their abilities to concentrate. The disease, known as "March Madness", refers to the yearly 65-team US men's college basketball tournament, it begins on March 15 and lasts through the beginning of April. Teams compete against each other in a single elimination tournament that eventually crowns a national champion. Nearly 20 million Americans will find themselves prisoners of basketball festival madness. The fun comes partly from guessing the winners for every game. Friends compete against friends, husbands against wives, and colleagues against bosses. Big-name schools are usually favored to advance into the tournament. But each year there are dark horses from little-known universities. This adds to the madness. Watching a team from a school with 3,000 students beat a team from a school with 30,000, for many Americans, is an exciting experience. Last year, the little-known George Mason University was one of the final four teams. Many people had never even heard of the university before the tournament. College basketball players are not paid, so the game is more about making a name for their university and themselves. But that doesn't mean money isn't involved. About ＄4 billion will be spent gambling on the event. According to Media Life magazine, the event will draw over ＄500 million in advertising revenue this year, topping the post-season revenue, including that of the NBA (全国蓝球协会). |