By Cody Reid-Dodick ’13, Sports Editor

This is not a preview.

With March’s madness already descending upon us, it seems only logical for the sports section to preview the 2011 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments – to give you the must-watch teams, or the surprise players, or the possible upsets. But doing that would go directly against this season’s basic theme: unpredictability. With the turbulent, upset-riddled state of college basketball at the moment, predicting the upcoming tournament would be nothing short of foolish.

So let me repeat, this is not a preview. Instead of analyzing more specific tournament issues – whether Duke will repeat, or the Lady Huskies will avenge their record-setting winning streak with a loss to Stanford – I’m here to provide you with a summation of the wonderful phenomenon that has become NCAA Tournament basketball over the past few decades.

The men’s single-elimination tournament began in 1939, the product of its patriarch Phog Allen’s brilliant idea that college basketball should conclude its season with the crowning of one definitive champion. From just eight teams in its first season, the tournament has expanded to a field of 68 teams this year.  Teams hail from all corners of the country and represent over a dozen Division I athletic conferences.

The Women’s Tournament developed in 1982, and has followed a similar path of consistent enlargement, having doubled its original 32-team field. The fact that together the tournaments encompass close to 100 major colleges makes it difficult to find a person in the United States who is not somehow connected to one, or any number, of the competing schools. The expansive competition pool has translated directly into a large and exuberant fan following that spreads the expanse of the country.

But just because huge amounts of people are connected to an event through family, school, or regional ties, doesn’t mean it will necessarily catch on a popular following like March Madness has consistently been able to do.  That’s the magic of March Madness – the circumstances that surround the tournament create a perfect storm.

Early on in the tournament, unfamiliar underdogs are pitted against talented powerhouses, a pressure-cooker situation that breeds upsets. Santa Clara beat Arizona in ’93, Princeton slid by UCLA in ’96, Northern Iowa creamed Kansas last year.  The list of early round shockers is seemingly never-ending. But as the tournament moves on, the weaker or unsuspecting are weeded out, and the worthy rise. Later rounds deliver more mind-blowing, Goliath-versus-Goliath matchups than any other major American sports tournament.

The aura of the tournament entrances fans throughout its three-week stretch, drawing massive numbers of spectators and record-breaking numbers of television viewers. Its effect can be measured most easily in financial terms. The men’s event began being partially televised in the 1970’s, before CBS struck a deal with the NCAA in the early 1990’s that designated the rights to every tournament game. Since then, television revenues have boomed. In 1999, CBS signed a $6 billion contract with the NCAA. With the advancement of internet video technology, CBS has taken advantage of streaming live games on demand for free. The combined ad revenue for CBS was estimated at around $497 million last year, taking into account the incredibly profitable new online aspect of their coverage.

Expectations for March should only be the unexpected.  Considering the charged environment surrounding the tournament, the massive fan following, and all the pomp that college sports could possibly provide, the NCAA Basketball Tournament is the ideal American tournament.