Opinion: Is this the worst March Madness of all time?

March Madness is perhaps the biggest sports spectacle that takes up a significant portion of the season.

With just over three weeks separating Selection Sunday to the Final Four, blue bloods, cinderella's and one shining moment headline a month that has so many other sports taking place at the same time as well.

The first weekend is what everyone especially looks forward to. With 48 games taking place across 96 hours, many of the storylines that come to define the tournament and bust brackets are formulated during these four terrific days.

After an entertaining First Four it seemed like we were about to have a lot to look forward to when Thursday rolled around.

Then the games happened.

Once the nightcap on Sunday between Oregon and Arizona concluded the Monday morning point guards got their opportunity to assess the happenings of the weekend.

But they were not talking about what happened in any game. They were not talking about specific moments or shots that could have changed momentum down the stretch of a tight contest.

They weren’t even breaking down a coaching decision that proved decisive in the outcome. They were not even talking about if there was or was not a travel on a last second shot.

Instead, the headline of the weekend was, in short, “College basketball is ruined.”

As much as this statement is untrue, let's see what fueled this argument in the first place.

People have become accustomed to the first round being one of the craziest two days to occur in the sports world. Recency has given us monumental upsets, unbelievable finishes and wild moments in general. Parity seemed to be the new normal.

But this year did a complete 180 degree turn from what the new norm seemed to be.

One of the noticeable factors was that there were only three upsets in the first round. A small handful of games came down to the last minute and there was no crazy buzzer beater either.

The second round saw every mid-major conference plus the Big East eradicated from the field and just one of the five double digit seeds remain, the SEC’s Arkansas Razorbacks.

Derik Queen had the biggest moment of the tournament thus far when he delivered a somewhat controversial buzzer beater for Maryland, but it came at the expense of an underdog Colorado State squad.

Looking at that it may be easy to see how this tournament has not lived up to the hype.

But it has. You just need to go below the surface to truly see this fact.

The one big thing most people are forgetting about March Madness is the fact that since 1985 the first round produces on average just 4.7 upsets a year.

The three produced this year did end up slightly under the average but there have been other tournaments in which upsets were hard to come by.

In 2000, there was one upset in the first round that came from an 11 seed or lower. 2004 and 2007 saw just two. 2015 had just four. 2019 only had five upsets using the same parameters as well.

These years may be spaced out over the last quarter century, but it shows that they are more outliers than consistent data points.

Plenty of upsets still happened between these years so the concern can just be chalked up to simply some very good teams occupying the top 20 plus spots of the tournament.

In terms of the lack of interesting finishes, there was plenty to be entertained about in the first two rounds.

Auburn and Alabama struggled in their games against Alabama State and Robert Morris respectively before pulling away down the stretch to win those games.

McNeese dominated Clemson in the first half of their game and the Tigers late rally fell short for the Cowboys to complete a 5 vs 12 upset.

The 7 vs 10 games may have been the best of the weekend with Saint Mary’s escaping Vanderbilt by three and Arkansas beating Kansas in what was the most back and forth game of the first round with John Calipari edging out Bill Self.

Drake and Colorado State completed upsets over the first round and Michigan survived a scare against UC San Diego which saw a buzzer beater for the Tritons fall short against the Wolverines.

In terms of round two, Florida finally ended the two year run of dominance for UConn as they dispatched the Huskies by two points.

BYU outdueled Wisconsin in an incredible game, Michigan pulled away from Texas A&M late, Michigan State did just enough against New Mexico, Arizona and Oregon rekindled some PAC-12 after dark with an entertaining 40 minutes and Rick Pitino and St. John’s fell to coach Cal’s Razorbacks in an upset.

And of course the Derik Queen shot for the win.

While this March Madness may not have had the first weekend magic many were used to seeing, it does not make the next two weeks any less exciting. Some could argue that it will make this tournament just as special as past ones.

Chase Fisher is a first-year student majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email ctf5198@psu.edu.