Spring is just around the corner and as any sports enthusiast will tell you, spring, not winter, is the most wonderful time of the year. With so many different sports currently being played, a sports fan can’t be around the television enough.

From college basketball, to the NBA, to baseball and golf (the lack of hockey only helps), a sports enthusiast can find sports just about anywhere. This is also the time that most people realize their significant other is an absolute sports lunatic, if they haven’t realized it yet.

Starting in early March, college basketball winds down its regular season and gets ready for conference tournaments. CSUN was just involved in the Big West tournament and came up just short against mighty Pacific. At the conclusion of the tournaments in mid-March, the NCAA selection committee picks 65 teams to play in the NCAA tournament.

At this point, offices all over the country begin losing massive amounts of money as their employees print out hundreds of pages of brackets to fill out for office pools. Not only do they lose money from the paper being used, people in the office also begin to spend more time talking about their picks next to the coffee machine, than they do filling out their TPS reports.

People that know nothing about sports, let alone college basketball, have so much fun filling out those little brackets.

There is just something about filling in empty space and proving that you can get luckier than the next person that makes people go nuts with those brackets.

The NCAA Tournament lasts a few weeks and near its conclusion, the NBA starts getting close to the end of its regular season. Playoff seedings are being decided and your team (usually the Lakers) are jockeying for higher positions. And now, we can anticipate the channel 7 playoff music; not as good as the catchy channel 4 music used to be but good, nonetheless.

Normally the NHL is a couple weeks ahead of the NBA in the playoffs. However this season is different and it appears nobody seems to be too upset about not being able to watch hockey players skating around with warm clothes, gloves and boots on frozen water, in the springtime.

Even golf season begins to really get competitive around this time.

Recently fan favorite Phil Mickelson battled the amazing Tiger Woods to decide who will win the most exciting tournament of the early season. Woods won as usual, but the competitiveness and excitement is something golf fans have been waiting for and a glimpse into what the rest of the season may bring.

Also beginning in early March is baseball’s spring training. All the new faces are in camp, and teams like the low-market Pittsburgh Pirates have the same record as the mega market teams like the Yankees and Red Sox. They may even be disillusioned enough to believe they can actually make it to the playoffs.

The sound of Vin Scully announcing Dodger games over the radio is something that every Angelino grew up listening to and brings back memories of Farmer John hot dogs and Unocal 76. The cracked bats and the sounds of 50,000 fans screaming in unison makes me understand why baseball is America’s National pastime and is just another gleaming example of why Spring is so great.

I can’t take anything away from wintertime, for its filled with wonderful holidays and New Years celebrations, and the opportunity it presents for us guys to be romantic and curl up by the fire with a loved one.

But if I’m given the choice, as nice as the fireplace sounds, I’m going nuts with the brackets.