It's March Madness Season and Drover Rideshare is here to talk about March Madness, Basketball, and Themed Drover Rides
As of the writing of this blog, we are finished with the First and Second Rounds and gearing up for the "Sweet 16" Regional Semifinals of the March Madness College Basketball Championship. If you're here, you are probably a fan, so let's dig into some fun facts and history about March Madness, Basketball, and a teaser of March Madness Drover Themed Rides for 2018.
March Madness
March Madness, technically called the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, is a single-elimination tournament in which 68 college basketball teams face off for the national title. Yes, Vanderbilt University made it this year. Yes, we lost in the first round of matches. Yes, I am sour about this.
The Tournament was originally created in 1939, the thought child of Ohio State coach Harold Olsen. Since then, March Madness has become one of the most popular annual sporting events in the USA. The CBS broadcast of the tournament alone rakes in $500 million for the NCAA. Interestingly, that sum is divided between the teams that participate in the tournament as follows:
- 1/6 of the money goes directly to the schools based on how many sports they play
- 1/3 of the money goes directly to the schools based on how many scholarships they give out
- 1/2 of the money goes to the regional conferences based on how well they did in the past 6 March Madness tournaments
The Division I Men's Basketball tournament is the only NCAA championship tournament where the NCAA does not keep the profits
Basketball
Basketball was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian-American educator, physician, chaplain, and all-around baller. He died in the fall of 1939 -- so he did live to see the first March Madness NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.
Since Naismith invented it, basketball has become an extremely popular sport, with both men's and women's leagues in middle school, high school, college, and professional leagues. At the pro level, most male athletes are above 6' 3" and most female athletes are above 5' 7". The tallest NBA players ever were both 7' 7". The tallest current NBA player is Sim Bhullar, 7' 5". The tallest player in the WNBA in history was Margo Dyek, 7' 2".
Fun fact, I know a family -- the Naismith's -- that are direct descendants of Dr. James Naismith. They are basketball fans and great people.
March Madness-Themed Rideshare Rides
In a June 2016 blog, I introduced the idea of Drover Themed Rides -- special Drover Rideshare rides in which your super-hype amazingly awesome Drover will have decked out his car and personal attire to match a Drover-approved theme for the day/weekend/week/etc.
March Madness this year got us thinking of how exciting it will be to have March Madness themed rides when the Drover app is fully functional this time next year.
What to expect:
- Drivers dressed in the jerseys, hats, and swag of their favorite teams and players
- Cars decorated in the style and swag of your drivers' favorite teams
- Solidarity for losses if you and your driver share allegiances
- Awkward silences if you and your driver root for separate teams
- Radio coverage of games if possible
What not to expect:
- Drivers dressed like they are mad
- Road rage
- The movie "Space Jam" to be mentioned at all
*(We anticipate to be able to fulfill rides by at least March 2018 given current progress).
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Patrizio Murdocca is Chief Web Architect at Drover Rideshare, a student at Vanderbilt University, and President of Interfaced Ministries.
