Let the Madness Begin!

It's only Day One of March Madness, but already living up to its name.

The first wave of games offered a one-point margin upset (#11 Old Dominion U over #6 Notre Dame), a double-overtime game (#7 BYU outlasted #10 Florida), and a #15 seed (Robert Morris U) nearly toppled a #2 seed (Villanova) in an absolutely unreal overtime game decided by just three points. Biggest upset thus far: #13 Murray State just beat #4 Vanderbilt at the buzzer.

This is why a lot of people, including myself, consider this the most wonderful time of the year.

That line, borrowed from the Andy Williams holiday ditty, is synonymous with yuletide and tidings of comfort, joy and all that jazz. But for sports-loving grown-ups like me, we wake up on Thursday morning and get just as giddy over our brackets as kids on Christmas morning who awake to find a pile of presents under the tree.

Kids believe in Santa Claus, we believe in Bracket Busters.

For kids, Santa brings magic to the season and his long-awaited arrival is the climax of the holiday. For us, it's the NCAA tournament. While we all enjoy our respective seasons (Christmas and college basketball), the build-up in no way matches the excitement of the big day. (Photo: Even Santa fills out a bracket... thanks to photoshop).

There are other similarities as well. We all enjoy an entire day filled with joy: presents and non-stop basketball games (but we get multiple days of fun, kind of like Hanukkah). The excitement of unwrapping a gift equals the excitement of watching a first-round game unfold (40 minutes of awesomeness). An upset, especially if predicted correctly on one's bracket, is like getting the most coveted gift on your Christmas list.

And we don't even have any wrapping paper to clean up when the fun is over. Also, instead of having to wait a whole year for more fun, we can look forward to the start of baseball season and the NBA playoffs (although not as fun). This is why sports are great.

But back to the brackets. I had high hopes of being productive today, however, those thoughts disappeared as quickly as Villanova's hope for an easy first-round game. I don't know why I even bothered--I never plan to be productive on December 25th.

I'll be busy unwrapping my gifts until CBS takes its first basketball break at 4 p.m. This really is the most wonderful time of the year.