We will soon crown the National Champions in NCAA College Basketball. Fans of the “Final Four” teams make significant investments in time and money in order to attend and show support for their home team. Each of them will buy team merchandise, game tickets, airline tickets, hotel rooms and meals. Each will spend a couple of thousand dollars to attend the final games being played in Phoenix. This is, after all, big business that requires big money.

Attending fans will cheer for their home team. Those who cannot attend, because their credit cards were already at the maximum spending limit, will watch on television.

How do we define the home team? With a roster of fifteen players, most teams will have only about three who were recruited from anywhere near home. That number is just enough to fill the distant end of the bench and keep the fans satisfied that their home state has some representation. The other twelve are on a full athletic scholarship and will have come from distant parts of the country and the world. Those over seven feet tall may have come from Europe, Africa or Australia.  When the team is comprised of players recruited from afar the term “home team” has an unclear meaning. Yet, “yeah team!”

The entire month has taken on the catchy label of March Madness. How apt is that?