NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Every year, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament features an underdog team that upsets a powerful school and draws national attention.
Loyola Chicago has been one of those underdog schools in recent years. College basketball fans cheered for the Ramblers and sister Jean during their time in the tournament. The Ramblers advanced to the Final Four in 2018 finishing 11th and advanced to the Regional Semifinals last season finishing 8th.
College basketball fans tend to lag behind such lower seeded players.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS ADS ON FOXNEWS.COM
Loyola players pose with the championship trophy after winning the Missouri Valley Conference championship game between the Loyola Chicago Ramblers and the Drake Bulldogs on March 6, 2022 at the Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Dr. Chelsea Day, a licensed sports psychologist at The Ohio State University, explained to Fox News Digital why college basketball fans cheer for the underdogs.
“There are a couple of things. Losers feel more like they could be us. I think there’s a certain way we treat people who have achieved this but may not have gotten that much… fame and recognition in a year. “, Day said.
“And I think at a deep level it shows that even little guys can win sometimes,” the psychologist said. “Sometimes these No. 13 seeds are still powerful schools that have a long history of success in basketball. But something about it is that they are in that position. waiting for them to do something that we all often want in life. We want to show up, and even when the odds are against us, we want to be able to make it and surprise people. I think there is some connection side of things in this.
“I also think it makes us feel hopeful that when you work hard, it pays off. And everyone is working hard, right? like you have to work harder to get that win. And so it seems, “Oh, their hard work paid off.”
“We also like to make parenthesized risky decisions like, ‘Well, everyone thinks it’s going to happen. I will choose that person,” and then you get such satisfaction when it actually happens, because you don’t just follow what the seeding is.”
MARCH 2022 MADNESS: REGGIE MILLER ON WHY GONZAGA MAY WIN NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS YEAR
Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt turns 100 on August 21, 2019. Sister Jean is surprised to be given an NCAA Final Four ring before the Loyola Ramblers play the Nevada Wolf Pack in 2018 at the Gentile Arena in Chicago, Illinois. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago) Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
When it comes to teams like Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and other blue bloods, fans love to watch them lose.
Day said that this is the part of the fans who want the “little guy” to win from time to time.
“You have these powerful schools that are always successful or often successful, and you don’t even want them to fail as much as you want the little guys to succeed,” Day told Fox News Digital. “You have a David versus Goliath situation where it is the clear winner. The way the chips stack up, this team should win. , appears and defeats the giant? And again I think it’s so nice to see the little guy win.
“Even socially, right? We think about it when a small local company has the best sales and outperforms the local giant. do not have the same resources. And you’ll never hear how it ends because it wasn’t meant to be. It’s designed to prevent that from happening. So when that happens it’s also amazing and you have to thrive on that energy. “No one can stop us. We are capable, no matter what.”
Leaky Black of the North Carolina Tar Heels hopes to make it to Cameron Indoor Stadium March 5, 2022 in Durham, North Carolina. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The first four will start on March 16-17, and the first full round of the tournament will begin on March 18-19.