WEBVTT 00:00:00.010 --> 00:00:03.850 Why does everyone go mad in March? Welcome back 00:00:03.850 --> 00:00:06.429 to the Learn English Podcast, the podcast teaching 00:00:06.429 --> 00:00:08.710 English in context so you can learn naturally. 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:11.820 On today's episode, I want to talk a little bit 00:00:11.820 --> 00:00:15.220 more about some American culture things and in 00:00:15.220 --> 00:00:19.519 particular a basketball tournament that starts 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:23.440 in the month of March and is very popular here 00:00:23.440 --> 00:00:26.760 in the United States. The name of this tournament 00:00:26.760 --> 00:00:31.300 is March Madness and it doesn't actually end 00:00:31.300 --> 00:00:34.479 in March. It only starts in March, but it is 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:38.240 incredibly popular. And I don't know if any other 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:41.219 country has something similar. It might be just 00:00:41.219 --> 00:00:44.420 one of those things that is very American. So 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:46.759 on today's episode, we're going to discuss what 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:50.659 this is, how it started, and how you could take 00:00:50.659 --> 00:00:54.219 part in it if you are interested. If you're interested 00:00:54.219 --> 00:00:56.579 in learning about this while practicing your 00:00:56.579 --> 00:00:58.820 listening comprehension and building your English 00:00:58.820 --> 00:01:01.880 vocabulary, then follow along because we're about 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:10.120 to begin. Before we get started, I want to remind 00:01:10.120 --> 00:01:12.200 you to look at the description of this podcast 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:14.620 episode. You will find helpful links like how 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:17.159 to take a lesson with me, and you'll also find 00:01:17.159 --> 00:01:20.439 the vocabulary list that I used in the episode. 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:23.879 You can take this list, study it, and use it 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:26.790 to build your English vocabulary. Now let's talk 00:01:26.790 --> 00:01:29.890 about March Madness. This is a basketball tournament 00:01:29.890 --> 00:01:32.989 that occurs every year here in the United States 00:01:32.989 --> 00:01:36.790 and it is a college basketball tournament. This 00:01:36.790 --> 00:01:39.730 is for teams that have college basketball teams 00:01:39.730 --> 00:01:42.790 at the very highest level. They get selected 00:01:42.790 --> 00:01:46.430 and they're able to go into this tournament and 00:01:46.430 --> 00:01:49.209 that tournament determines the winner of the 00:01:49.209 --> 00:01:53.049 national championship. Now I know from talking 00:01:53.049 --> 00:01:55.959 to my students who have been learning English 00:01:55.959 --> 00:01:59.359 online with me that college sports is not really 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:03.040 as popular in other countries as it is in the 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:06.079 United States. The United States has a very strong 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:12.340 college sports program. It is overseen by something 00:02:12.340 --> 00:02:17.759 called the NCAA which is the National Collegiate 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:22.080 Athletic Association. They are the ones who oversee 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:26.039 college sports in general and they are the ones 00:02:26.039 --> 00:02:30.210 who put on this tournament every year. When you 00:02:30.210 --> 00:02:33.169 do play sports in college, there are different 00:02:33.169 --> 00:02:36.889 rankings. Think of this in terms of leagues about 00:02:36.889 --> 00:02:39.870 how good a particular team is or a particular 00:02:39.870 --> 00:02:43.710 university is. There are three divisions, Division 00:02:43.710 --> 00:02:47.530 3, Division 2, and Division 1. Division 1 is 00:02:47.530 --> 00:02:50.469 the highest tier. Those are for the best teams. 00:02:50.590 --> 00:02:55.169 And this tournament is for those Division 1 schools, 00:02:55.389 --> 00:03:00.819 the best teams in the country. It consists of 00:03:00.819 --> 00:03:05.560 64 teams. It didn't always have that many teams 00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:09.919 when it first started in 1939. It only had, I 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:13.520 think, eight teams, but it has continued to grow 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:19.180 and expand, and now it is at 64 teams. These 00:03:19.180 --> 00:03:24.479 64 teams get selected, and they get seeded for 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:27.460 the tournament. Seeding is when you determine 00:03:27.460 --> 00:03:30.520 what the ranking of a team is. Are they number 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:34.259 one, number two, number three? This occurs for 00:03:34.259 --> 00:03:38.819 four different areas of the tournament. So you 00:03:38.819 --> 00:03:42.280 seed these teams into these four different areas, 00:03:42.419 --> 00:03:47.240 which means each area has 16 teams. So they are 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:52.000 seeded one through 16. The number one seed would 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.189 be considered the best. team in that particular 00:03:55.189 --> 00:04:00.069 area for the tournament and the number 16 team 00:04:00.069 --> 00:04:03.310 would of course be considered the worst they're 00:04:03.310 --> 00:04:05.729 not a bad team because obviously they made the 00:04:05.729 --> 00:04:08.009 tournament that is a big step a lot of teams 00:04:08.009 --> 00:04:10.930 don't even make the tournament every year but 00:04:10.930 --> 00:04:13.689 it is considered to be the weakest team in that 00:04:13.689 --> 00:04:16.490 particular part of the bracket this tournament 00:04:16.490 --> 00:04:21.420 is a single elimination tournament, which means 00:04:21.420 --> 00:04:24.699 that if you lose, you go home. This might be 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:27.339 different from other tournaments. Think of the 00:04:27.339 --> 00:04:30.740 World Cup or the Euro Cup or America, for example. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:34.060 Those, you have that group play stage where you 00:04:34.060 --> 00:04:36.360 get out of group play first. This is not like 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:39.699 that. This is single elimination, which means 00:04:39.699 --> 00:04:43.240 you do go home if you lose a game. It is exciting 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:46.579 to see your college make the tournament. Of course, 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:49.720 people start cheering for whatever college or 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:53.180 university that they went to. And then it's exciting 00:04:53.180 --> 00:04:55.420 because you're really hoping they win. If they 00:04:55.420 --> 00:04:58.019 lose, they go home. So you want them to win. 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:00.899 You want them to keep going on further and further 00:05:00.899 --> 00:05:04.500 in the tournament. Another reason why it is so 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:07.600 popular is because of this whole bracket idea 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:11.240 and the different matchups between the teams. 00:05:12.139 --> 00:05:15.279 There are a lot of people who at the beginning 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:19.060 of a tournament make a bracket and they try to 00:05:19.060 --> 00:05:22.939 select the winners. So the first round of matches 00:05:22.939 --> 00:05:26.740 is set once the teams are seeded. You know exactly 00:05:26.740 --> 00:05:30.300 who is going to play who in the first game. But 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:32.000 after that, you don't know. You're just trying 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.240 to hope and see who wins and think of who will 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:37.699 eventually make it to the final and become the 00:05:37.699 --> 00:05:41.839 national champion. It has become part of the 00:05:41.839 --> 00:05:45.319 culture here in the US to make a bracket at the 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:48.639 beginning of the March Madness tournament. Of 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:51.079 course, not everyone does, but if you are a college 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:53.939 basketball fan, if you're someone who likes to 00:05:53.939 --> 00:05:57.279 watch the tournament, or if you're someone who 00:05:57.279 --> 00:05:59.420 just maybe wants to make a little bit of money, 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:03.579 you can make one of these brackets. When Barack 00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:06.759 Obama was president, he would actually come out 00:06:06.759 --> 00:06:09.579 in front of the media and show his bracket and 00:06:09.579 --> 00:06:12.439 explain why he was selecting one team versus 00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:16.560 the other. That helped popularize this idea of 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:20.100 making a bracket. And there's also some giveaways 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:23.819 or prizes for people if they are able to correctly 00:06:23.819 --> 00:06:28.120 predict who is going to win. For example, there 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:31.139 is someone here called Warren Buffett. He is 00:06:31.139 --> 00:06:33.779 a billionaire. He is one of the richest men in 00:06:33.779 --> 00:06:39.540 the world. And every year he has a prize for 00:06:39.540 --> 00:06:42.680 his people who work for him for his employees 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:46.699 if they are able to correctly predict a certain 00:06:46.699 --> 00:06:50.699 amount of games they could win 1 million dollars 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:54.959 That is a huge prize. I would love to win that 00:06:54.959 --> 00:06:58.379 prize. And one year, I think maybe a decade ago 00:06:58.379 --> 00:07:01.519 or so, Warren Buffett made it a public thing. 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:04.220 If you had a perfect bracket, if you were able 00:07:04.220 --> 00:07:06.800 to correctly predict every single game, you could 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.839 win some crazy amount of money. I remember I 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:12.480 entered, my cousin entered, a lot of people I 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:14.680 knew entered because, you know, there's nothing 00:07:14.680 --> 00:07:17.680 really to lose. You could win some really big 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:19.839 prize that would be amazing and change your life. 00:07:19.899 --> 00:07:22.899 And so that adds... to the excitement other companies 00:07:22.899 --> 00:07:26.279 do similar things with having people submit their 00:07:26.279 --> 00:07:29.519 brackets for a chance to win their prizes might 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.620 not be as crazy as a million dollars but you 00:07:32.620 --> 00:07:35.600 might win something it's very exciting I can 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:38.819 say that no one won when Warren Buffett made 00:07:38.819 --> 00:07:41.839 that thing public when everybody had a chance 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:44.759 to win and I also don't think his employees have 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:48.149 won I might be wrong on that Now those are some 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:51.329 free prizes, but of course there are also some 00:07:51.329 --> 00:07:53.649 things that are not free. There are a lot of 00:07:53.649 --> 00:07:56.290 people who make brackets and then bet money on 00:07:56.290 --> 00:08:00.269 them or bet money on just individual games. Sports 00:08:00.269 --> 00:08:03.910 betting is legal in a lot of the United States 00:08:03.910 --> 00:08:06.389 and you can bet online in a lot of different 00:08:06.389 --> 00:08:08.569 states. We can't do that here in California, 00:08:08.649 --> 00:08:11.209 but in a lot of states you can. And there are 00:08:11.209 --> 00:08:14.930 a lot of people who do bet money on this tournament. 00:08:15.529 --> 00:08:20.170 It is estimated that about $3 billion will be 00:08:20.170 --> 00:08:23.290 gambled during the course of the tournament, 00:08:23.430 --> 00:08:26.689 and that is for legal betting. Of course, there's 00:08:26.689 --> 00:08:28.670 bets that people might make with their friends. 00:08:28.730 --> 00:08:32.110 That's not recorded or tracked by anything. Maybe 00:08:32.110 --> 00:08:34.210 you and your friend have a bet who's going to 00:08:34.210 --> 00:08:37.669 have the best bracket, and maybe you bet a few 00:08:37.669 --> 00:08:41.190 dollars. There's also some illegal betting. Like 00:08:41.190 --> 00:08:43.370 I said, California has some restrictions, so 00:08:43.370 --> 00:08:46.240 sometimes people want... to get around those 00:08:46.240 --> 00:08:49.519 restrictions and bet in some illegal means. Those 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:53.059 are all things that do occur. So the number of 00:08:53.059 --> 00:08:55.320 bets and the total amount of money is definitely 00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:58.919 higher than $3 billion. But that just gives you 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:02.179 an estimate of how popular this tournament is 00:09:02.179 --> 00:09:06.000 and how much money does get bet or get wagered 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:09.529 on the tournament itself. now for march madness 00:09:09.529 --> 00:09:13.090 there are actually two tournaments there is the 00:09:13.090 --> 00:09:17.009 men's tournament and the women's tournament both 00:09:17.009 --> 00:09:20.210 have had increases in popularity though traditionally 00:09:20.210 --> 00:09:22.830 the men's tournament was the one that was most 00:09:22.830 --> 00:09:24.710 watched that got the most amount of viewers but 00:09:24.710 --> 00:09:26.649 the women's tournament has become increasingly 00:09:26.649 --> 00:09:30.740 popular in the last few years Overall, the men's 00:09:30.740 --> 00:09:33.480 tournament averages about 10 million views per 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:37.559 game. The women's tournament averages about 2 00:09:37.559 --> 00:09:40.580 million, a little over 2 million. However, for 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:44.460 the finale, the final game to actually determine 00:09:44.460 --> 00:09:47.700 the national championship last year, the men's 00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:51.220 tournament got 14 .8 million views, while the 00:09:51.220 --> 00:09:55.220 women's final got 18 .9 million views. That means 00:09:55.220 --> 00:09:57.940 that the women's national championship game actually 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:01.700 got more. viewers than the men's and it was in 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:05.580 part due to some really big stars one in particular 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:09.200 her name is Caitlin Clark she was a senior which 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:11.440 means it was her last year she was going to be 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:14.100 playing college basketball before she became 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:16.679 a professional when we have someone who goes 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:19.320 from college to the professional leagues we call 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:22.980 that turning pro so it was her last year before 00:10:22.980 --> 00:10:26.970 she turned pro and that's a lot of excitement 00:10:26.970 --> 00:10:30.690 she is considered to be the best player she has 00:10:30.690 --> 00:10:33.570 the scoring record she's a very popular player 00:10:33.570 --> 00:10:36.830 last year she was in the final game with her 00:10:36.830 --> 00:10:38.990 team and it got a lot of views because people 00:10:38.990 --> 00:10:41.830 really did want to watch her Now, when we talk 00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:44.870 about the teams that are playing, there are always 00:10:44.870 --> 00:10:47.350 the favorites. The favorites are the teams that 00:10:47.350 --> 00:10:50.210 are very highly seeded. Maybe the number one 00:10:50.210 --> 00:10:53.429 or the number two team in the country. And these 00:10:53.429 --> 00:10:55.669 are usually teams that make it every year that 00:10:55.669 --> 00:10:59.070 have a very strong basketball program. And every 00:10:59.070 --> 00:11:01.309 year they make the tournament and they're expected 00:11:01.309 --> 00:11:05.070 to do very well in it. These teams are called 00:11:05.070 --> 00:11:08.769 Blue Bloods. And this is limited. There's only 00:11:08.769 --> 00:11:13.059 maybe six to eight. teams that are in that pool 00:11:13.059 --> 00:11:15.779 but if you hear that term blue bloods that's 00:11:15.779 --> 00:11:18.259 what they're referring to these very strong programs 00:11:18.259 --> 00:11:21.279 that are expected to always do well The opposite 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:25.159 of that is the Cinderella team. The Cinderella 00:11:25.159 --> 00:11:29.000 team is referring to that fairy tale. Think of 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:32.440 that Disney movie Cinderella, this girl who doesn't 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:34.299 really have very nice clothes, who doesn't live 00:11:34.299 --> 00:11:37.000 in a very nice way. She has to clean up after 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:38.840 her family. People don't really think much of 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:41.980 her. And then she goes to the ball and she has 00:11:41.980 --> 00:11:44.500 this beautiful dress and she's gorgeous, right? 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:48.000 That's what the Cinderella story is. So the Cinderella 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:50.500 story is the team that... doesn't really have 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:53.039 the best stuff maybe doesn't have the best players 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:58.139 is not expected to do well maybe the 16th seed 00:11:58.139 --> 00:12:02.360 the 15th seed and they are expected to really 00:12:02.360 --> 00:12:05.360 just lose in the first round and go home when 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:08.120 they win though when they start winning and they 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:10.960 continue on in the tournament and they are causing 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:13.779 all these upsets that is when they become this 00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:16.120 cinderella team and that's called a cinderella 00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:18.279 story if you want to relate this to the world 00:12:18.279 --> 00:12:21.919 cup think of South Korea or Morocco for example 00:12:21.919 --> 00:12:24.820 teams that start beating teams that they weren't 00:12:24.820 --> 00:12:26.840 supposed to and people start cheering for them 00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:28.740 because they weren't the team that was expected 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:32.799 to win they were the underdog so the underdog 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:36.039 is the team that is expected to lose to the favorite 00:12:36.039 --> 00:12:39.460 and so when the underdog starts winning they 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:42.500 get called the Cinderella team now sadly Cinderella 00:12:42.500 --> 00:12:45.320 has to leave the ball right when the clock strikes 00:12:45.320 --> 00:12:47.580 midnight she has to run home because the magic 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:50.580 wears off And that's also part of this, the Cinderella 00:12:50.580 --> 00:12:53.259 story. Eventually, the magic will wear off and 00:12:53.259 --> 00:12:55.620 the team will lose and they'll leave the tournament. 00:12:55.740 --> 00:12:59.179 I actually don't think a Cinderella team has 00:12:59.179 --> 00:13:02.440 won a very low ranked team. I could be wrong. 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:05.460 I don't know everything, but usually they do 00:13:05.460 --> 00:13:08.159 leave after a couple of rounds. Now, when we 00:13:08.159 --> 00:13:11.629 talk about the rounds. Every time they have a 00:13:11.629 --> 00:13:15.330 game, half of the field leaves, right? Half of 00:13:15.330 --> 00:13:17.149 the teams in the tournament leave. So it starts 00:13:17.149 --> 00:13:20.679 with 64. And then it goes to 32. And then it 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:24.120 goes to 16. When it gets to 16, they call that 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:28.139 round the Sweet 16. You'll hear that a lot. Which 00:13:28.139 --> 00:13:30.240 teams are making the Sweet 16? Which ones are 00:13:30.240 --> 00:13:33.080 expected to make the Sweet 16? Which ones do? 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:35.980 Which ones don't? When you play that round, half 00:13:35.980 --> 00:13:38.620 of the teams go home again. And so you have the 00:13:38.620 --> 00:13:42.179 Elite Eight. These are the eight teams that have 00:13:42.179 --> 00:13:45.019 made it to this part of the tournament. They 00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:47.379 are, of course, really, really good teams by 00:13:47.379 --> 00:13:49.549 now. because there's only eight left, and that's 00:13:49.549 --> 00:13:52.269 why they get called elite. Elite usually means 00:13:52.269 --> 00:13:56.490 better than the average thing, right? Very prestigious, 00:13:56.590 --> 00:14:00.649 very good. So these are the elite eight. Then 00:14:00.649 --> 00:14:04.659 from that, you get the final four. The final 00:14:04.659 --> 00:14:07.240 four are the four teams that are now in the running 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:09.980 for the national championship. You play one more 00:14:09.980 --> 00:14:13.080 round to get to the semifinals. And then the 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:15.879 final two teams play for the national championship 00:14:15.879 --> 00:14:20.259 in April. Now, everything isn't perfect when 00:14:20.259 --> 00:14:24.379 it comes to these tournaments and the college 00:14:24.379 --> 00:14:28.039 association in general. Up until very recently, 00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:31.240 college athletes did not get paid, but there 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:34.600 was a lot of money that went into college sports 00:14:34.600 --> 00:14:37.340 and that was made from college sports. Like I 00:14:37.340 --> 00:14:40.659 said, college sports are very, very popular in 00:14:40.659 --> 00:14:43.759 the U .S. These national championship games sell 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:47.320 out for basketball, for American football. is 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:50.000 extremely popular. The coaches would get paid 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:53.299 millions of dollars. In most of the states in 00:14:53.299 --> 00:14:57.519 the U .S., the highest paid public employee is 00:14:57.519 --> 00:15:01.759 a football coach or a basketball coach. They 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:04.399 get paid millions of dollars. The school makes 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:07.440 millions or even billions of dollars. And up 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:09.960 until very recently, the college athletes didn't 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:13.830 make anything. About a decade ago, one of the 00:15:13.830 --> 00:15:16.870 college players who was in this tournament said 00:15:16.870 --> 00:15:19.889 that he was in this tournament, millions of dollars, 00:15:19.970 --> 00:15:22.009 billions of dollars were being made, and he did 00:15:22.009 --> 00:15:24.690 not even have enough money to buy food. He could 00:15:24.690 --> 00:15:27.490 not go buy lunch. And that brought a lot of attention 00:15:27.490 --> 00:15:31.090 to this issue about college athletes not being 00:15:31.090 --> 00:15:34.570 paid and really not having money to eat when 00:15:34.570 --> 00:15:37.149 there's so much money that's being made from 00:15:37.149 --> 00:15:40.230 them being in this tournament and just in general 00:15:40.230 --> 00:15:43.159 employment. There were lawsuits to try to change 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:46.559 this and in 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that 00:15:46.559 --> 00:15:50.279 athletes could make money from their image. That 00:15:50.279 --> 00:15:52.159 means that they could have sponsors, they could 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:54.960 do commercials, they could do sponsored posts 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:57.840 on social media like on Instagram. And since 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:01.179 then, a lot of athletes have started making money. 00:16:01.320 --> 00:16:04.039 Of course, the best athletes in the country were 00:16:04.039 --> 00:16:07.220 the ones who started making money or maybe the 00:16:07.220 --> 00:16:09.580 best looking athletes were the ones who were 00:16:09.580 --> 00:16:11.120 able to make money. to be in commercials but 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:14.379 at least it was something some way for them to 00:16:14.379 --> 00:16:16.700 get some type of income when they were involved 00:16:16.700 --> 00:16:21.379 in this Because when it comes to the actual broadcast 00:16:21.379 --> 00:16:25.379 companies, CBS is the one who airs the tournament. 00:16:25.460 --> 00:16:28.580 You can watch the CBS channel and watch these 00:16:28.580 --> 00:16:32.879 games. They pay about $1 .1 billion to the NCAA 00:16:32.879 --> 00:16:36.320 just to show the games. And if they're paying 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:38.940 that much, you know that they are making more 00:16:38.940 --> 00:16:42.700 money than that from selling ads during the game. 00:16:42.820 --> 00:16:45.860 So you can really see how much money is around 00:16:45.860 --> 00:16:49.120 this one. tournament that's not even just the 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:51.879 regular season that's just this particular tournament 00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:54.679 and you can see how much money is being made 00:16:54.679 --> 00:16:58.259 versus how much the athletes were not making 00:16:58.259 --> 00:17:02.419 before 2021 another controversy around the tournament 00:17:02.419 --> 00:17:06.680 is always seeding people always complain about 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:08.900 which teams make the tournament versus which 00:17:08.900 --> 00:17:12.099 don't maybe some People thought were good enough 00:17:12.099 --> 00:17:15.759 to be in the top 64 and they weren't. Or people 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:18.099 thought this particular team should be the number 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:21.220 one seed, the number one team, and maybe they 00:17:21.220 --> 00:17:24.170 got ranked the number three. And people will 00:17:24.170 --> 00:17:26.609 complain about the seeding. You'll see some controversy 00:17:26.609 --> 00:17:29.529 every time the brackets get announced, every 00:17:29.529 --> 00:17:32.549 time the seeding comes out. There's always people 00:17:32.549 --> 00:17:34.730 who are angry, but I feel like that's just what 00:17:34.730 --> 00:17:36.970 sports fans do, right? They kind of complain 00:17:36.970 --> 00:17:40.210 about what's happening and thinking that their 00:17:40.210 --> 00:17:43.009 team was not given what they should have been 00:17:43.009 --> 00:17:46.160 given. And the final controversy really has to 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:48.680 do with the gender differences. Up until very 00:17:48.680 --> 00:17:52.200 recently, the two tournaments were not seen as 00:17:52.200 --> 00:17:56.000 the same. The men's team got all of this money, 00:17:56.039 --> 00:17:58.779 got all of this revenue, and that meant that 00:17:58.779 --> 00:18:00.799 they got really good facilities. What we mean 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:04.119 by facilities is their locker room, the gyms, 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:06.740 the courts that they practice on, the things 00:18:06.740 --> 00:18:09.319 that they have access to. A couple of years ago, 00:18:09.380 --> 00:18:11.539 there was a picture posted by people who were 00:18:11.539 --> 00:18:14.369 in the women's tournament. it showed their facilities 00:18:14.369 --> 00:18:18.210 and it showed just how sad those facilities looked 00:18:18.210 --> 00:18:22.009 how cheap how they didn't get the support or 00:18:22.009 --> 00:18:25.589 financial resources that they needed in order 00:18:25.589 --> 00:18:27.809 to have these really nice facilities that the 00:18:27.809 --> 00:18:30.990 men's side did and that caused a lot of controversy 00:18:30.990 --> 00:18:34.029 people complained like I said the women's side 00:18:34.029 --> 00:18:36.640 has become much more popular in recent years 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:39.240 and women's basketball has just become way more 00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:42.319 popular in the last five or six years so that 00:18:42.319 --> 00:18:44.859 has been getting better the women do have more 00:18:44.859 --> 00:18:46.960 access to the same facilities so there has been 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.220 some issues with that some attention brought 00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:51.900 to that and it definitely has gotten better in 00:18:51.900 --> 00:18:54.880 recent years if you want to watch march madness 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:57.759 of course you can start right now the tournament 00:18:57.759 --> 00:18:59.779 has already started but we're really in the middle 00:18:59.779 --> 00:19:03.140 of it there are games going on right now if you're 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:06.220 interested in watching and seeing what all the 00:19:06.220 --> 00:19:08.759 attention is about, what all the fuss is about, 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:12.319 as we would say. And the actual championship 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:15.440 games themselves are not until April. So the 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:17.740 Women's National Championship will be on April 00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:20.740 6th. The Men's will be on April 7th. So if you 00:19:20.740 --> 00:19:23.400 are interested, you can watch those games. And 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:25.539 that'll be the end. That'll be the end of the 00:19:25.539 --> 00:19:27.400 tournament, which I know is a little bit funny. 00:19:27.539 --> 00:19:30.720 We say March Madness, but it ends in April. Of 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:33.039 course, all of the seating and the brackets and 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:34.750 all the excitement. Enlightenment starts in the 00:19:34.750 --> 00:19:37.690 middle of March and takes over the end of the 00:19:37.690 --> 00:19:40.430 month, which is why we call it March Madness. 00:19:40.710 --> 00:19:43.049 I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you found 00:19:43.049 --> 00:19:45.349 it interesting and learned a little bit about 00:19:45.349 --> 00:19:47.750 this part of American culture, learned these 00:19:47.750 --> 00:19:50.730 things that Americans do that maybe people in 00:19:50.730 --> 00:19:53.630 other countries don't. And I also hope you learned 00:19:53.630 --> 00:19:56.210 some new vocabulary terms. A reminder to look 00:19:56.210 --> 00:19:58.589 at the description of this podcast episode so 00:19:58.589 --> 00:20:01.210 you can find that vocabulary list so you can 00:20:01.210 --> 00:20:02.990 study it and hopefully start using it. these 00:20:02.990 --> 00:20:06.230 terms in conversation yourself. If you enjoyed 00:20:06.230 --> 00:20:08.849 the episode, if you liked learning about American 00:20:08.849 --> 00:20:10.829 culture, if you want more episodes like this, 00:20:10.890 --> 00:20:14.509 please leave a comment. Tell me about it. I don't 00:20:14.509 --> 00:20:16.150 know if you like these unless you let me know. 00:20:16.210 --> 00:20:18.730 So please leave a comment below if you did enjoy 00:20:18.730 --> 00:20:21.380 the episode. If you like the podcast overall, 00:20:21.640 --> 00:20:23.619 if it's helping you learn English, please consider 00:20:23.619 --> 00:20:26.339 leaving us a rating on whatever app you're using 00:20:26.339 --> 00:20:28.859 to listen to this podcast on. You can tell a 00:20:28.859 --> 00:20:31.539 friend, tell a family member, tell someone who 00:20:31.539 --> 00:20:33.460 is learning English so we can continue to grow 00:20:33.460 --> 00:20:36.019 our audience. You can follow us on social media 00:20:36.019 --> 00:20:38.839 at LearnEnglishPod. The website is LearnEnglishPod 00:20:38.839 --> 00:20:42.660 .com. And remember to like and subscribe so you 00:20:42.660 --> 00:20:44.759 don't miss our next episode when it comes out 00:20:44.759 --> 00:20:47.619 next week. Until then, keep learning English.