March Madness brackets fill up across the country as fans carefully choose what team will take home the championship during the college basketball tournament.
The best teams such as Duke, Michigan State, Kansas, and Villanova fill the top slots immediately. Later, the teams who aren't as well known begin to slowly fill up against the strong teams of the NCAA - the underdogs. Fans strategically choose teams that will beat the top team in the league, including the underdogs that have a chance of beating the superior team in the tournament. Though the favorite is predicted to win some viewers secretly hope the underdog takes home the victory. Throughout the history of sports, the underdog has given fans an emotional appeal. Viewers experience more of an intense game when the underdog keeps the game close, luring people to their feet and giving them hope that the team who has given their all will take home the title. Athlete and 11th-grader Henry Reich said, “Without the underdog, sports would lose that indispensable idea of a comeback story. Records are set and remembered even more with underdogs. In this past year, the world of sports has seen underdog success rates like never before.” Not only does the underdog give fans an emotional appeal in sports, but it also affects the betting process for the spread. Mitchell Plane an 11th-grade baseball player, said, “When I fill out a bracket I would most likely pick the lower seeded number because the higher seeded number is most likely better, so the underdog would be the lower seed. Whoever wants it more is going to come out on top and the underdog beats a better team when they want it more.” Bookies, the facilitators of betting, and those who participate may be deeply affected by underdogs. Studies by Steve Levitt in “A winning strategy: bet home underdogs” suggest the underdogs beat multiple spreads in sports. Levitt found that in both NCAA and NBA basketball, home underdogs cover in about 53% of cases. That’s a good bet. Schedules are also are often manipulated to encourage closer games and give the underdog a chance of victory. According to FiveThirtyEight writer David Nussbaum, “In hockey and baseball, even the worst teams are generally given a 1 in 4 chance of beating the best teams. Even the NFL encourages its games to be planned closer by using an unbalanced scheduled.” Effort has an affect on fans, as hard work lures viewers to be attached to the underdog team. Plane said, “I personally love to watch the underdog because watching an underdog team beat the better team than them, it's the best thing to witness. Whoever wants it more is going to come out on top.” Not only does the underdog present itself throughout sports, but it can also be seen in politics as the nation’s current president Donald Trump was seen as the underdog throughout the election against Hillary Clinton. In a study by Nathan A Heflick, fans rated underdogs as higher in effort which had a direct relationship with the support of underdogs. Overall, fans enjoy seeing the underdog victories because they work harder in games against the so-called favorite. Physics teacher Veronica Heintz said, “To me the underdog in general represents hope because there is always that chance that the underdog can overcome the challenges ahead. it's less fun when teams are always on top and and never experience strife. I believe you never get better when you are always on top. The underdog gives hope for bettering yourself and overcoming people's expectations of you. Without the underdog in sports, there would be no hope that even some of the worst teams can overcome the best. Reich said, “In the NBA finals, perhaps the greatest team in NBA history, the Warriors lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers. In baseball, in the World Series, the Indians had a 3 to 1 series lead and were one win away from a championship over the Chicago Cubs who hadn't won a World Series in 108 years, yet the Cubs pulled it out. And finally, in Super Bowl 51 the Patriots were down by 25 points in the third quarter and managed come back and win the game when their odds to win the game at that point in time were one in 200.” |