Let March Madness begin

America's annual three-week obsession with college basketball is almost upon us. The NCAA men's basketball tournament — more commonly known as "March Madness" — will debut its expanded 68-team field Tuesday night with a champion to be crowned on April 4.

And rest assured that though the NCAA insists its players are amateurs, lots of money will change hands. The New York Times put the amount of cash legally wagered on the 2009 tournament at upward of $90 million. Considering how tough it is to get a hotel room in Las Vegas the next two weekends, that number might be a bit low.

In any event, the legally wagered figure hardly scratches the estimated $2.5 billion that folks across the land shell out in thousands of office pools. It leads to a number of curious spectacles.

Folks who days before didn't even know where a school such as Morehead State is even located (Kentucky) will burst into cheers if the aforementioned Eagles pull the upset they predicted. Oh, by the way, much of this whooping-it-up goes on at work, where some reports have suggested American worker productivity dips during March Madness by as much as $3.8 billion.

We say, so what? The $3.8 billion figure is based on shaky economics. Last year, an estimated 48 million viewers watched some of Duke's win over Butler in the NCAA title game. Some 66 million viewers did not. And far more of the NCAA Tournament is shown at night or during the weekend than during a normal weekday (only the games on the opening Thursday and Friday).

Therefore, exactly how could a limited number of people (less than 30 percent of the estimated U.S. workforce) be wasting $3.8 billion worth of time in just two days? And when it comes to lost productivity, where are the estimates on how much e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and just about any other hand-held distraction costs us?

Much like the Super Bowl, the NCAA Tournament is now as much a cultural event as a sporting one. People plan parties and businesses run specials based on the games. And no matter what attention-seeking economists or PR firms say, there's nothing wrong with a little early spring sporting diversion.

So let the Madness begin. Just don't pick Duke to repeat.