Is it a bad sign that a $2 bet in the office pool is enough to make me watch 100 hours of college basketball this month? I mean, I really, really care about the outcomes of games like Pittsburgh v. Butler and Xavier v. Marquette. I haven't even heard of some of these colleges, never follow college basketball (never follow basketball PERIOD), yet when March rolls around I'm some kind of bracket junkie.
The best part about March Madness? It's on TV nearly constantly for 3 weeks, providing an excellent excuse for not working on my novel. Also, I can pretend that someday I'm going to write a gritty book about the trials and tribulations of a college basketball team and am thus doing "research."