For 3 weeks anyway, we can ignore the trash

The NCAA Tournament is a prime example of the remarkable capacity sports fans and sports media have for suspending their values.

It's like accepting a Rolex as a gift from a racketeer friend who bought it with laundered money.

Major League Baseball attendance continues to increase despite the steroids scandal.

The NFL becomes more popular as more players suffer more concussions.

More to today's point, the NCAA basketball tournament remains mesmerizing despite so much about intercollegiate athletics being so contemptible.

Guilty as charged, your honor. I rant and rave as much as anybody does about college basketball and football transgressions.

Yet during the next three weeks I'll stifle my objections and appreciate the games.

This year is the big test for us around here, of course. This year there is no DePaul or Illinois, no UIC or Loyola, not even a Bradley or Southern Illinois or Illinois State.

I guess we have to adopt Marquette University at Chicago and Western Notre Dame.

Or maybe we should just pull for all the area players -- Derrick Rose, Patrick Beverley, Sherron Collins, Jon Scheyer and the rest -- who left the state to further their basketball careers.

Or perhaps the best option is to boo the TV when Duke plays because Chicago native Mike Krzyzewski is so pompous.

That's the thing about the NCAA Tournament: There is so much appeal because there are so many story lines for so many people in so many parts of the country.

So, yes, as much as I find college sports regrettable in myriad ways, I'll marvel along with everybody else this month.

First-round games Thursday and Friday -- a total of 32 -- provide what many believe are the most compelling 48 hours of sports in any calendar year.

They won't get any argument here. With no local team to follow to one of the subregionals, I'll be planted on the couch next to the rest of you.

Then I'll be disgusted with myself when this weekend ends, and even more so when the entire tournament ends.

It'll be like the morning after that date you had with the girl who has great, er, attributes even though she smokes, swears and eats with her hands.

Let's face it, too much of college athletics is corrupt. Cheating isn't condoned but tolerated with a shrug and a, "Hey, everybody does it."

This tournament is to amateur sports what Wall Street is to a friendly game of Monopoly.

Basketball coaches at major schools -- especially ones funded by football programs -- are paid exorbitant amounts of money. Then many earn incentives for reaching goals related to winning, which in effect are temptations to cheat to win.

The schools themselves compromise academics for athletics. Just read the Ann Arbor News series on Michigan.

Meanwhile, Northwestern refuses to sacrifice academic standards and is giggled at for never qualifying for the NCAA Tournament.

I won't even get into the most common complaint -- everybody benefits financially except the athletes -- because a college scholarship is invaluable.

If only more alleged student-athletes took school seriously, recognized there is more to life than sports, pursued an education and earned a degree.

Ah, but all that negativity is for another time, isn't it?

Now is for sports enthusiasts to suspend our values and enjoy the NCAA basketball tournament.