When March Madness comes around, filling out brackets is a tradition for lots of people as it is a good activity for fun and competition with family and friends. In addition the tournament allows casual basketball fans to be engaged and excited for the teams in the tournament.
But now, with NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) college sports seem to be changing in a significant way, now schools with more money are able to offer the good players more money to come and play with them. The 2025 march madness is a new competition!
Filling out a bracket is a great way to have fun with friends and family, it can also engage people who are not basketball fans to cheer on teams during the tournament.
Aron DeBenedictis said, “I like how you can compete against other people who you know and don’t know how good each other’s brackets are. It’s also fun because it’s a real playoffs and is live so I can enjoy watching these games while everyone else is too.”
As DeBenedictis says brackets are a way to make watching the games much more engaging. Another exciting thing about march madness is that it’s really easy for anyone to get involved with, as the teams in the tournament can only lose once and they’re out. This can make it so each game is an excitement for everyone.
But now with NIL there is a much different twist to the madness.With the new addition of NIL in college sports, teams and brands are allowed to pay the athletes for name image and likeness, this major change to college sports has some big effects on the march madness results.
The way NIL works is that once a player signs with a school, the school then has rights to how they can use their name, image and likeness, this could be brand endorsements or deals with local businesses. This has changed the game because now the colleges with more money can offer the athletes more appealing deals and endorsements.
Enthusiastic basketball fan Quinn Caudle shares his opinion about the impact it’s had on the sport. “NIL sucks because it causes all the top teams to have all the opportunities that come around, especially with players. So all the smaller teams at the bottom of the bracket pretty much have no chance to have the future that the top teams have.”
To conclude, March madness is a fun and engaging tradition among friends and family, and can make for a great time. But with the recent addition of NIL in college sports, the tradition is sure to be impacted greatly for the years to come or until there is a change. Games Saturday April 5th 4:09 pm and 6:49 pm.
