Why I love, and hate, the NCAA tournament

Today is the day. It's finally here... March Madness. The NCAA tournament. 3 of the best weeks in all of sports.

I love the NCAA's as much as anyone, but as great as tournament time is, it isn't all long treys and close finishes. It's also Billy Packer and 1 vs. 16 blowouts.

When you break down the NCAA's by pros and cons, you'll see exactly what I mean.

Pro: The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is Christmas in March for sports fans, giving us uninterrupted college basketball for 4 straight days.
Con: Ass sores.

Pro: One of the schools that you root for gets in the NCAA's. Go Sparty, beat Marquette!
Con: The other school that you root for has Tommy Amaker as their coach.

Pro: The DirecTV March Madness package, which allows you to watch every game shown over the first 2 weekends.
Con: I have cable...

Pro: The free March Madness web broadcasts. If you register ahead of time, you're granted "VIP" access.
Con: There's 28,745 ahead of you in the "VIP" line to get on the server. And when you finally do get in, it slows your older, pokey ass PC to a crawl.

Pro: Close games, upsets galore, fantastic finishes and a level of excitement most sports can't match due to the NCAA's one and done format.
Con: When you see the score of that huge upset in the making on screen, but CBS refuses to switch your station over, in favor of staying with the local team/Humongous State U/Duke game. Even if said local team/Humongous State U/Duke is getting spanked big time.

Pro: Gus Johnson calling early round games. Gus could make a 1 vs. 16 game sound like 1992 Duke/Kentucky.
Con: Gus isn't working the later rounds. God damn you, CBS!

Pro: You get to see very talented and experienced mid major and small conference teams that get next to no TV exposure during the regular season.
Con: Rather than showcase some of those talented mid major teams, CBS shoves the beatified Coach Krztjedsn56%d@8ski and Duke down our throats at every damn opportunity.

Pro: The Worldwide Leader in Sports doesn't broadcast any of the NCAA games.
Con: That doesn't stop the WWLiS from talking yelling about it incessantly, allowing Dukie Vitale and Digger Phelps to unleash their reign of terror upon our nation. BABY!

Pro: You can fill out your own bracket almost anywhere, be it on the web, in your office, at the bar. Everyone plays, and most anyone, with a little luck, can win.
Con: Everyone feels the need to talk about their brackets! EVERYONE! And who always wins the bracket pool? Someone who has nary a clue about college hoop, and made their picks based on who has the cutest uniforms, or some other ass backward reason.

Pro: 2 weeks of Bill Rafferty, the best, and most entertaining, college color man around. "Onions!" "The kiss!" "They come out in a...MANTOMAN!!!"
Con: 3 weeks of Billy Packer, an unfunny, curmudgeonly, ACC biased, anal blowhard know-it-all of a color analyst who pisses off the entire populace, and hasn't been even remotely tolerable since his days with Al McGuire and Dick Enberg. In other words, Billy Packer is evil.

Pro: People live to see the "One Shining Moment" montage at the end of the tournament.
Con: I might be in the minority, but sure as Hell, I'm not one of them. I'm not a fan of manufactured sap made into a music video. Plus it's an absolutely crappy song!

In this man's opinion, get rid of Billy Packer and "One Shining Moment," and the NCAA's would be damn near perfect. You listening, CBS?