By Mike Finger, Columnist | San Antonio Express-News (SAEN), 2025-03-22 15:48:52
由生成式人工智能翻译，译文内容可能不准确或不完整，以原文为准。
在解释的过程中，我意识到我其实并不真正了解答案。至少不像我原以为的那么了解。
这种情况发生时总是很滑稽，不是吗？当别人用全新的视角让你重新评估你几十年来的固有认知时？当大声说出一个基本的真理，让你开始怀疑，这真理是否仍然成立时？
或者它是否曾经成立过？
也许我不适合回答这个问题。但当一位法国记者，想要让他的读者理解这种陌生的现象，本周问我为什么美国人如此喜爱被称为“疯狂三月”的NCAA篮球锦标赛时，我以为我可以轻而易举地帮他解惑。
毕竟，我几乎从小就观看NCAA篮球锦标赛。小时候，在选拔周日，我会用螺旋笔记本画出我自己的对阵表，并在电视上宣布球队名单时，匆匆地写上他们的名字。作为一名体育记者，在过去的四分之一世纪里，我报道了至少100场锦标赛比赛，包括8场最终四强赛，而且还在继续。
这应该被认为是我的专业领域，不是吗？
我的朋友和同事Maxime Aubin，一位法国记者，过去几年一直住在圣安东尼奥，为《队报》报道维克多·文班亚马(Victor Wembanyama)的消息，他认为我是个适合问这个问题的人。但当我试图向他解释清楚时，我注意到我说的时间越长，我的解释就越不稳定。
“所以这和赌博有关？”Aubin问道。
“是的，”我沉思了几秒钟后说道。“但实际上又不仅仅是赌博。”
当然，他的假设在很多方面都是正确的。当然，NCAA锦标赛的受欢迎程度，就像如今其他许多重大体育赛事一样，在很大程度上归功于美国人喜欢对比赛结果进行投注。当然，如果观众席上没有人对谁胜谁负有经济上的利害关系，无论多么微不足道，CBS、TNT、TBS和TruTV的收视率都可能会暴跌。
根据美国博彩协会的数据，今年在美国，人们将在男子和女子锦标赛上合法投注超过31亿美元。这涵盖了超过120场比赛，但已经超过了超级碗的投注额。
这是一个天文数字，这使得我对Aubin的反驳显得有些天真。但我的观点，或许有些浪漫化，是大多数“赌”疯狂三月的人并非以传统意义上的方式进行投注，不是通过经过认证的体育博彩公司或社区赔率制定者一场接一场地下注。
我试图解释说，在二三十年前，其吸引力在于更纯粹的“非法”活动。办公室博彩在技术上是非法的，但每个人都可以打印出对阵表，每个人都可以填写，而且你不需要对大学篮球了解多少，就有机会击败那些从11月开始每晚都在有线电视上看ACC和Big West比赛的家伙。
把10美元或20美元投入博彩只是为了好玩，而且基本上是无害的。而且任何人都有可能走运。
“因为有很多冷门，对吧？”Aubin问道。
“没错，”我说，从这里我真正开始相信我找到了问题的关键。
我告诉Aubin，在美国职业体育中，实际上没有真正的小人物。从历史上看，洛杉矶湖人队比夏洛特黄蜂队成功得多，但他们都给球员支付数百万美元的薪水，而且当黄蜂队获胜时，没有人会感到震惊。
在大学橄榄球中，偶尔会出现令人震惊的结果，但小球队没有真正的机会与强队的纯粹天赋和体型竞争。
在大学篮球中，弱者有时可以找到与强者平等竞争的机会。我告诉Aubin，在某种程度上，这是我们版本的欧洲足球中的升降级制度，这让不起眼的、看似实力悬殊的弱者有机会击败重量级人物。
有那么几分钟，我为这个比较感到自豪。然后我开始思考过去十年左右发生的事情，大学体育的每一次变化都是为了巩固权力，并使小人物越来越有可能被挤出局。
我们真的喜欢美国的弱者吗？
还是我们只是声称喜欢？
当我结束与Aubin的谈话时，我已经不确定了。
在大洋彼岸，显然有法国读者想知道我们为什么关心“疯狂三月”。
我现在很好奇，他们是否比我们更了解它。
Duke forward Cooper Flagg celebrates after their win against Louisville after an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - MARCH 16: Walter Clayton Jr. #1 of the Florida Gators celebrates during the second half against the Tennessee Volunteers in the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship game at Bridgestone Arena on March 16, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
Houston guards Milos Uzan (7), Terrance Arceneaux (23) and Emanuel Sharp (21) hold cup Big XII Champions signs after the Cougars beat Cincinnati to clinch the outright conference title after an NCAA college basketball game at Fertitta Center in Houston, Saturday, March 1, 2025.
点击查看原文：Why do Americans enjoy March Madness? Explaining why is tough
Why do Americans enjoy March Madness? Explaining why is tough
In the middle of my explanation, I realized I didn’t know the answer. Not the way I thought I did, anyway.
It’s funny when that happens, isn’t it? When someone else’s fresh eyes make you reevaluate what you’ve assumed for decades? When uttering a basic truth out loud makes you wonder, for perhaps the first time ever, if it’s still true at all?
Or if it ever was?
Maybe I was the wrong guy to ask. But when a French reporter, wanting his readers to understand an unfamiliar phenomenon, asked me this week why Americans love the event known as March Madness, I figured it would be easy to help him out.
After all, I’ve watched the NCAA basketball tournament for practically my whole life. As a kid on Selection Sunday I’d draw my own brackets in a spiral notebook and scribble in the names of the teams as they were announced on TV. As a sports writer I’ve covered no fewer than 100 tournament games over a quarter-century, including eight Final Fours and counting.
This should be considered an area of expertise, shouldn’t it?
My friend and colleague Maxime Aubin, a French reporter who’s lived in San Antonio the last couple of years covering Victor Wembanyama for L’Equipe, thought I’d be a decent guy to ask about this stuff. But as I tried to break it all down for him, I noticed my story kept changing the longer I spoke.
“So it’s about gambling?” Aubin asked.
“Yes,” I said, upon a couple of seconds of contemplation. “But not really gambling.”
Of course his presumption was correct, in many ways. Of course the popularity of the NCAA tournament, like that of so many other major sporting events these days, is due in no small part to the fact that Americans love to bet on the outcome. And of course the TV ratings on CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV likely would crater if no one in the viewing audience had a financial stake, however trivial, in who wins and loses.
According to the American Gaming Association, people in this country will bet more than $3.1 billion legally in this year’s men’s and women’s tournaments. That covers more than 120 games combined, but it’s more than is bet on the Super Bowl.
It’s an astronomical number, and it makes my protestations to Aubin seem more than a bit naïve. But my point, perhaps a bit romanticized, was that most people who “bet” on March Madness aren’t doing so in the traditional sense, one game at a time, through a certified sports book or a neighborhood oddsmaker.
I tried to explain that two or three decades ago, the appeal lay in more innocent “illicit” activities. Office pools technically were illegal, but everyone could print out a bracket, everyone could fill them in, and you didn’t have to know much about college basketball to have a chance to beat the guy who’d been watching ACC and Big West games on cable every night since November.
Throwing $10 or $20 into the pool was just for fun, and mostly harmless. And anyone could get lucky.
“Because there are lots of upsets, right?” Aubin asked.
“Exactly,” I said, and this is where I really started to believe I was onto something.
In American pro sports, I told Aubin, there really aren’t any little guys. Historically, the Los Angeles Lakers are much more successful than the Charlotte Hornets, but they both pay their players millions, and nobody is shocked when the Hornets win.
In college football, there are shocking results every now and then, but the small programs don’t have a realistic chance to compete against the sheer talent and size of the powerhouses.
In college basketball, the underdogs can find themselves on equal footing every now and then. In a way, I told Aubin, it’s our version of promotion and relegation in European soccer, which gives the humble, seemingly overmatched underdogs a chance to take down the heavyweights.
For a few minutes, I was proud of this comparison. Then I started to think about the past decade or so, where every change in college sports has been about consolidating power, and made it increasingly likely that the little guys will get squeezed out.
Do we really like the underdogs in America?
Or do we just claim to?
By the time I finished talking to Aubin, I wasn’t sure anymore.
Across the ocean, there apparently are readers in France wondering why we care about March Madness.
I’m now curious to find out if they understand it any more than we do.
By Mike Finger, Columnist, via San Antonio Express-News