The Emotional Investment of the Viewer

In his book Culture in Mind: Cognition, Culture, and the Problem of Meaning, Bradd Shore details the aspects of what he calls "marginal play." The first component of marginal play is normative liminality, which states that "expected norms of social relationships in the 'outside world' are sometimes deliberately violated as a defining feature of life within the community" (Shore 107). Essentially, this means that within the framework of the game, participants are able to engage in behavior that is unacceptable outside of the game. Another aspect of empathetic engagement. Shore writes, "Spectators commonly find themselves caught up in game play. With strong kinesthetic involvement, they can easily forget that they are merely viewers...Empathetic engagement is behind the periodic blurring of the boundaries of play, where spectators become players in a game of their own making" (Shore 109-110). The final part of marginal play is frame violations defined by, "What appears like an offstage event turns out, on closer inspection, to be just another stage. Apparently offstage areas in sports all have their own performance rules. So what we call games are just performance frames that enter into complex relations with other frames. Therefore it is hardly surprising that offstage and onstage sometimes become confused; their boundaries blurred" (Shore 112).
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Bradd Shore


Empathetic engagement is the component of marginal play most prevalent in bracketology. Many people interviewed experience some degree of emotional investment when watching the tournament games. For most, bracketology is the medium through which people realize this empathetic engagement. Once a bracket has been filled out, some people will watch the tournament unfold within the context of their bracket. Joe Lunardi commented on empathetic engagement of the viewership saying,

"There are lots of people who sit around and watch games that they would otherwise have no rooting interest in, but society has given them a vehicle to have that interest...Everybody adopts schools because of who they circle on those sheets. It becomes almost beyond being a fan. There are bragging rights that go along with picking Cornell even when you've never been to Ithaca, New York or cannot name one player on the team."

Indeed, every game is of interest to a participant of bracketology. Some viewers will watch every game and cheer for the team that they selected to win in their bracket. If there is loyalty to one of the teams, the viewer may feel conflicted. This tension can exacerbate the empathetic engagement experienced by the viewer, resulting in a more emotional experience.  Here it becomes evident that there is a sort of game taking place within the individual games and the tournament as a whole. The actual basketball game being played occurs within the bracket game. The bracket game takes place in between individuals who have selected the winners of the actual game. Thus, each actual game is only one piece of the bracket game. The goal of the bracket game is to predict as many games as possible; a point system is used to determine a winner. In bracket pools, early round games are worth the lowest number of possible points, meaning that the actual games taking place are the least important in the bracket game. However, the teams that are selected to advance far in the bracket game are followed more closely by the viewer, resulting in a greater degree of empathetic engagement for these teams.

Amanda Bremer predicted Kansas to win the tournament as did 39.96% of the 4.2 million brackets entered into ESPN's Bracket Challenge. Although she claimed to know little about Kansas' team aside from their high ranking, she felt comfortable making this selection. In one of the many surprises of this year's tournament, Kansas lost to Northern Iowa in the second round. Bremer recalled experiencing a high degree of empathetic engagement during this particular game. She yelled at her television while Kansas' players showed little motivation throughout the game. As Kansas made a comeback into the game, Bremer cheered for them to overcome the remaining deficit. In this moment, Bremer was concerned with her own game that was taking place, the bracket game she was playing with everyone who entered their bracket in ESPN's Bracket Challenge. With Kansas' loss, she was effectively eliminated from placing high. Although the game between Kansas and Northern Iowa meant little in terms of the number of points that could be gained in the bracket game, the game had high stakes because less points could be earned in later rounds. Given these high stakes, Bremer became more emotionally involved in the actual game. If she had not predicted Kansas to advance far in the tournament, she would have expressed little empathetic engagement when watching the game.

This video was taken during the 2008 tournament's National Championship game. At the beginning of the clip, Memphis's Derrick Rose makes a free throw to put Memphis up by three points. On the ensuing Kansas possession, Mario Chalmers makes a three point shot to tie the game, which subsequently went into overtime.

This video shows the Kansas's fans reacting to the shot by Chalmers. The reaction displayed by the fans encompasses all three aspects of marginal play. Normative liminality can be observed based on the reaction of the fans. The screaming and jumping expressed by the viewers would not be deemed as appropriate behavior if they were to take place in a context outside of watching the game.

Empathetic engagement is present based on why the fans react. They feel as if they are a part of the game, its outcome determines how they respond. Given the high stakes, a large amount of tension has built up in the fans until the shot is made. The action of the ball going through the net causes the fans to release this tension by celebrating.

Finally, frame violations are present in this video. The Kansas fans in the video watch the game from Allen Field House, the home court of the Jayhawks. Thus, the physical boundaries between where the game is actually taking place, San Antonio, Texas, and where the team normally plays in Lawrence, Kansas have become blurred. The fans react as if the tying shot had been made on the empty court that sits below them.

Joe Sullivan experiences empathetic engagement in a different manner when watching tournament games. As stated in the Brackets page, Sullivan does not like to fill out a bracket because he enjoys watching the tournament as it unfolds. He believes that the bracket game takes away from his viewing experience and therefore disregards the bracket he fills out before the tournament. Sullivan claims to generally root against major conference teams, favoring the "underdogs." Yet, he holds allegiances to various teams for different reasons. A graduate of Saint Joseph's University, Sullivan favors the Hawks in every game. Furthermore, he favors other teams in the same athletic conference as Saint Joseph's, the Atlantic-10. He also cheers for schools that are important to his friends. For example, his former college roommate is a professor at the University of Dayton, so Sullivan supports the Flyers.

Aside from his perennial favorites, Sullivan also becomes attached to teams throughout the course of the regular season leading up to the tournament. He stated that usually five or six teams stand out to him before the tournament begins. He experiences empathetic engagement by adopting these teams as his favorites through the duration of the tournament. He noted Baylor was a favorite of his this season because of the team's excellent guard play and resilience. Sullivan supported Baylor throughout the tournament and was disappointed when the team lost to Duke in a close quarterfinals "elite eight" game. Finally, the teams that he adopts before the tournament begins can vary each year. Particular players and the overall character of the team are factors that can induce empathetic engagement in Sullivan.

Even if Sullivan is impartial at the beginning of a particular game, he will find himself cheering for one particular team at the conclusion of the game. The biggest criteria for a team to receive his empathetic engagement is the effort it puts forth in the game. The decision to support one team over the other has a sacred element to it for Sullivan. Once he chooses the team, he does not alter in supporting it.  However, this support will not necessarily carry over to the next round, unless if it is one of the five or six teams he adopts before the tournament begins. Sullivan concluded by noting that he rarely finishes watching a game as an impartial observer. The exception to this is what he calls a "bus crash game," a match-up between two teams he strongly dislikes. When this occurs, he remains impartial throughout the game with little empathetic engagement. Rather, he would prefer that both team buses would crash into each other, which is the origin of the phrase "bus crash game."

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