March vs. October, Which is the superior sports month?

If those of you viewing this post are anything like me, college basketball season is about to begin and the entire first two rounds will be spent further wearing out the couch after the bonus tv is added for a complete March Madness viewing experience. College basketball is a one month sport (sometimes shorter if the refereeing is enough of a turn-off) that has the best playoff format (so much chaos! All of it constant for four days!) yet simultaneously, the worst playoff format because everybody gets a chance and the world shouldn't need to have cared about Northwestern basketball these last few weeks because they have a 0% chance of winning the championship ("Oh really now?" contemplated Chris Collins) and yet, they will technically be given a chance to win it all with an eventual invitation into the field of 68 tournament eligible teams. It's chaotic and fun and momentarily as satisfying as a piece of Fruit Stripes gum but, sometimes all of that (let's face it) sloppy basketball wears a viewer out and the post-weekend #1 games never live up to the games or hype that preceded them (he says the year after one of the best championship games ever). It's 1990's Knicks-Heat if all of the players had 20% of the fundamentals.

AP Photo/Gerry Broome
Another problem with college basketball is the lack of identifiable players and the most identifiable face being that of Coach K.

Weekend #1 of college basketball still ALWAYS lives up to the hype because everybody has a bracket (some have multiple) and we all just watch for the moment that we are disappointed in being proven wrong, which happens to literally everyone every year. There is nothing quite like March for a die-hard sports fanatic....

Unless we start to consider October.

October contains all 3 major sports, hockey (that fourth sport) and college football functioning simultaneously. The tenth month falls right around a time when people trade in their t-shirts for jackets, furthering the need for more televised entertainment. It contains the hopefulness of the beginning of the NBA and NHL seasons, the midseason NFL games that help paint a clearer portrait of who is in and out of playoff discussions and greatest of all, postseason baseball. It is a really wonderful time for a sports fan and would even be so without the best thing other than playoff baseball, college football. God, I miss college football right now.

USA TODAY
Only six more months until Sam Darnold becomes the apple of every NFL scout's eye.

The current month (March) used to be a month that I spent disconnected from my blog because

A. It would downright disrespectful for me to analyze the upcoming tournament with my having watched one lone regular season game (Brent Musberger's final call).

B. NFL Free Agency is an easy thing to just pass by without commenting on until previewing the football season.

and C. The hype surrounding the NFL Combine and MLB Spring Training is more focused on what follows instead of what the instant repercussions of both are. Sure, some players are injured in Spring Training and yes, the draft stock of players like Washington WR John Ross just went through the roof but, those are both topics that won't be fully realized for weeks.

and while it's lovely to have the future of the big leagues on MLB Network every day (along with the World Baseball Classic) and the path to the NBA Playoffs being paved before our eyes, there really aren't enough interesting topics to fill up sports talk shows on a day-to-day basis in March. This week has seen Draymond Green's thoughts on silent basketball and potential Mike Glennon contract numbers LEAD OFF sports programs. Quietly, this is sort of a dull month just filled with anxiousness and a few fun weekends of basketball. Considering how many feel this is the strongest of sports months, maybe that's the true madness of it all.