Every year when March Madness rolls around and my school spirit climbs a point or two, it’s a lot more fun to make a bracket based on completely nonsensical aspects of basketball. With the amount of upsets that happen, and have happened in just the first couple rounds, I honestly think having background knowledge makes your bracket worse. This year, my bracket, inspired by a very long quarter of finding solace in HGTV, is based off of how much I would want to live in the school’s arena. To keep the bracket from just revolving around how much money a school has (and therefore can update and renovate their arenas), I took into account attendance at games, concessions, Reddit feedback and more. I can’t really say I know anything about these teams in terms of how they play, but some of them have some very nice stadium amenities I wouldn’t mind taking advantage of. Without further ado, here’s my final four (adjusted for correctness at Elite 8):
- University of Connecticut (UConn)
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I know that they’re known for being a ~basketball school~ but their turnout is insane. With a capacity of a little over 10,000 and an average attendance per game of 10,345, Harry A. Gampel Pavilion seems like the best pick. There’s a good variety of concessions, and the arena is the largest for on-campus basketball in New England, which isn’t saying a ton, but I found it significant. The reportedly raucous atmosphere sold me; Huskies are my No. 1 pick this year.
- Creighton University
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CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska holds a whopping 17,580 spectators with an average attendance for men’s basketball at 16,611. Creighton got the second spot almost solely based on that attendance but also the domed shape of the arena, which slightly resembles Epcot but also a UFO. Points were definitely added for creative design and how interesting it would be to just walk around and look.
- University of Miami
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Sitting in sunny Coral Gables, Florida, the Watsco Center holds around 8,000 people and has an average turnout of about half that at 4929.2 per game. The attendance definitely knocked some points off of the Dolphin’s score in my book, but the bottomless popcorn and other fun concessions offered redeemed them a bit. Honestly, I tried not to be swayed by the location of the arenas (see Omaha, Nebraska at No. 2) but they definitely got points for being in Miami and in such nice weather. Disney on Ice also performed at the Watsco Center and that just made me chuckle.
- San Diego State University
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In addition to being in San Diego, the Viejas Arena has a lot to offer. Britney Spears has performed there and there’s an open-air part of the stadium that I absolutely love. There are a good amount of options for concessions, and with an average attendance of 11,331 in an arena with a capacity of 12,414, the atmosphere looks lively. I couldn’t pass up being semi-outside; I know it’s not useful but if any of these arenas were completely outside, they would have won automatically.
Hopefully, this bracket has some success, considering the invaluable and completely relevant metrics analyzed. Stay tuned for next year’s tournament and a new bracket based on completely frivolous attributes that have nothing to do with athletics at all. Happy watching!