Even though I follow the women's volleyball, softball, and field hockey and the men's lacrosse and ice hockey seasons, this is my favorite time of the year, although in terms of television coverage college athletics has become cartelized and commodified like the collegiate football championship on the men's side. And yes, there is a political economy of college sports.
There are of course the continuing anachronisms, largely regional where men's and women's team names for ungendered mascots are asymmetrical: Lady Bears, Lady Volunteers etc with no corresponding Gentlemen Bears, Gentlemen Volunteers, etc.
This is not about wagering on-ground or online so much as watching underdog teams such as Princeton which got the same kind of seeding that The University of Vermont received in its unbeaten season. UConn will probably be the winner, with some dark horses possible, albeit fewer than on the men's side.
http://espn.go.com/...