Thursday is the best day of the year.

Forget Christmas and forget New Year’s.

And don’t even think about your birthday.

None of them compare to the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Thursday, or yesterday if you count the play-in game between Coppin State and Mount Saint Mary’s, marks the beginning of a three-week trek college basketball enthusiasts live for.

Whether you have interest for a particular school or not, I beg you to tune into CBS at sometime during the day and watch the best basketball of the year. Conference games are fun, but they don’t match the intensity of March Madness. And forget about the National Basketball Association.

Amateur athletes with nothing more than passion, desire and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity give everything they have for an opportunity to represent their schools on a national stage during March Madness.

Sure, players from North Carolina, Duke and UCLA are used to playing in big arenas on national television. But for the Austin Peay’s, the Siena’s and the Mississippi Valley State’s of the world, this is probably their only chance to display their skills in front of a national audience.

Because of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the stakes are higher. Play becomes more intense, and the passion of the players is visible as soon as the ball leaves the referee’s fingers on the tip.

In days where college sports have been flooded by corporate sponsorships, hampered by the next highly touted freshman to turn pro and run through the mud by allegedly shady recruiting practices – ahem, Kelvin Sampson – the NCAA Tournament allows us to forget those blemishes for three weeks and enjoy the brilliance of college basketball.

The opening round is a time when the Bryce Drew‘s and Christian Laettner‘s of the world’s mediocre NBA careers are dwarfed by a moment when they put their team on their shoulders and come through in the clutch.

If you enjoy high drama, buzzer beaters and David taking down Goliath, then March Madness is right up your alley.

So watch in delight as the non-power conferences knock down the big dogs, one-star recruits outplay future lottery picks and remember that the drama and passion of these athletes is why we watch sports.

Dan Cusack can be reached at 581-7944 or at dscusack@eiu.edu.