One Channel, No Streaming, And Sneaking Sick Days: The Old-School March Madness Experience Was Electric

As March Madness gets underway this week, I don't think folks these days realize how good they have it when it comes to watching every single game of their choosing. 

For the ones who had to go through the years of tuning in on a "box" television, the appreciation of having multiple ways to watch the NCAA Tournament is certainly not lost on us "old" folks who were forced to watch the scoreboard graphics to keep up with our favorite team.

I can remember the days in high school where we prayed for our driver's education teacher to allow us to bring out the television that only had local CBS. Do you know how hard that was as a basketball fan to only be able to watch one game at a time? 

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The most wonderful time of year was also a chaotic time of waiting for CBS to break into the current game to show us highlights of a buzzer-beater in a different region. 

Now, you can watch games on your phone or computer. Man, what I would've given to have that type of technology back in high school, or even college. 

Rewinding the game to watch a replay? Ha, that would've been nice!

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Oh, and forget about "sick days" in school, unless you were willing to skip it and risk being caught by your parents for scheming the system. In today's world, we have basketball teams putting together their own type of "work excuse" on social media for fans to join in with the fun of three weeks of pure chaos. 

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Imagine your parents coming home unexpectedly to find you hanging out with your buddies on the couch, maybe enjoying a few alcoholic beverages that you took out of your father's stash in the fridge. Yep, that wasn't a fun conversation to have when I was caught, and then grounded because of that, which also meant sitting in after-school detention. 

As you sit in your college class, or high school, watching the NCAA Tournament on your cell-phones or massive computers, remember the ones who came before you. 

Heck, you can watch other games while you're sitting in the stands attending another. 

One Channel, No Streaming, and Sneaking Sick Days: The Old-School March Madness Experience Was Electric (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Keep in mind that folks my age didn’t have the pleasure of pulling up a stream on CBS Sports and enjoying the madness of March. Not all of us had the cool teachers that would allow us to skip that day's lesson so we could enjoy this glorious time of year. 

Do you know what I would've given to have "Tru-TV" back in my high school days? 

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Oh, and for all the gamblers out there, you're lucky that getting to place a bet on games only needs a login to your favorite online account. 

Heck, I was betting my lunch money with friends, and I most certainly wasn't savvy enough to have a bookie. Our days of watching college basketball meant calling some weird phone number to find a spread, or better yet opening the newspaper to find out what the betting line was for each game. 

I know, opening an actual newspaper! 

So, as you prepare your setup for this weekend, with your three computers and multiple televisions, don't take it for granted. 

We had to do it the hard way, and my goodness it was thrilling.