By Leilani Vaiaoga

April 7, 2008 | Crazed sports fans have been gluing themselves to their big-screen TVs for the last couple of weeks. But March Madness isn't just about the best college basketball in the country.

For many -- even those who aren't true hoops fans -- the madness is as much about brackets and picking the winners as it is about the games themselves.

The NCAA's end-of-season basketball tournament brings together 64 of the very best college basketball teams in the United States into four regional, single-elimination tourneys, leading up to this past weekend's Final Four and Monday's championship game.

In offices and on campuses nationwide, spectators participate in the games by making their own brackets from the 64 teams, picking winners and, perhaps, winning some money in the process.

USU sophomore Jesse Parker is a basketball fanatic who is managing his own bracket competition this year.

"I've gotten like 30 of my friends to do a bracket," he said. "It's easy -- you predict which teams you think are gonna win in the tournament by filling out a bracket. The buy-in is only $10 and at the end of the tournament, if your bracket is the most accurate, you win.

"Our pay-out is $200 for the winner."

For senior Sara Parker, the brackets are fun, but she's in it for the raw talent and the competition.

"I love college ball because the players actually play defense," she said. "In the NBA, the players are lazy and just run up and down the court and score a whole lot of points."

The main attraction to March Madness bracketing is the fact that virtually anyone can win. Participants look up stats, evaluate teams and check track records as they fill out their brackets. According to ESPN's Joe Lunardi, college basketball analyst, bracketing has become something of a science, but many fans rely on pure luck.

Freshman Brittney Bell has participated in March Madness bracketing with her family for a couple of years. "I love doing a bracket because I have a chance to win money," Bell said. "What's interesting about it is that anyone can win. Last year, my little sister won $350 in our bracketing group and she had never watched a day of college basketball in her life. I was so pissed!"

Luck played a big role in this year's tournament, as few could have predicted some of the long-shot winners like Davidson that stayed alive until late. And this year, the top seeds in all four regions made it to the Final Four, which is unheard-of.

Junior Kate Snell loves watching the games and admits to getting caught up in the madness. "I love the First Round, it's so freaking intense," she said. "There are four games going on at the same time, and you get to watch all of them because they switch coverage of each game between commercials."

Rich Wilkinson, a junior, agreed. "Yeah, March Madness has me hooked to the TV," he said. "I definitely missed two days' worth of classes because I wanted to stay home and just watch all of the games. I love the Cinderella teams that come to the tournament with nothing to lose but everything to gain if they win."

As the 2008 tournament finished up Monday night, the final March Madness intensity has left many fans in a state of exhaustion.

And this Tuesday morning, somewhere out there may be a real student of the game -- or someone who was very, very lucky -- whose bracket may have had top-ranked Kansas and Memphis State in the final, and came away not just mad in March, but completely hysterical.

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