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2G3TXN3 An illuminated March Madness poster in downtown Indianapolis recognizes the NCAA college basketball tournament held in the city.

March Madness Survey: How Fans Prioritize Basketball, Brackets & Time Off

Originally posted on Action Network | By Ben Mendelowitz | Last updated Mar 6, 2025 6:55 AM ET

March Madness isn’t just a tournament—it’s a lifestyle. To get a sense of how deep the obsession runs, we surveyed 3,000 full-time working NCAA fans across the U.S. between February 20 and February 26, 2025.

The research was conducted by Research Without Barriers (RWB) and adheres to the MRS Codes of Conduct (2023), ICC/ESOMAR World Research Guidelines, and GDPR regulations.

We asked fans 4 questions:

Do you care more about the NBA or your NCAAB team?
Have you ever called in sick to watch a March Madness game?
Which of the following would you give up to get a perfect bracket?
How much time per day do you spend checking March Madness scores?

The results? Fans are making some serious sacrifices for their love of college basketball. Let’s break it down.

Do Fans Care More About the NBA or Your NCAAB Team?

When it comes to basketball fandom, March Madness fans show surprising loyalty—not to their college teams, but to the NBA.

62% of respondents say they care more about the NBA than their college team.
Only 33% prioritize their NCAAB team.
5% don’t care about either.

The only exception? Fans 55 and older—who are the only age group to put college basketball first (48% vs. 43%).

Breakdown of Fan Priorities

Preference	Percentage
NBA	62%
NCAAB Teams	33%
Neither	5%

Have You Ever Called in Sick to Watch a March Madness Game?

March Madness fever is real—and it’s keeping people out of the office.

40% of fans admit they’ve called in sick just to watch games – that’s 4 in 10 workers prioritizing hoops over their 9-to-5.

Honestly, with the chaos of the tournament, who can blame them?

Sick Day Breakdown:

Called in Sick?	Percentage
Yes	40%
No	60%

What Would You Give Up for a Perfect Bracket?

The dream of a perfect bracket has fans ready to make some wild sacrifices*:

26% would give up their favorite team winning March Madness.
24% would sacrifice all vacation days for a year.
18% would forgo a $10,000 winning bet.
16% would skip a family wedding.
9% would miss their honeymoon or even a family member’s funeral.
8% would leave their partner.
7% would give up their child (hopefully as a joke?).

*survey respondents could select up to three options on this question!

How Much Time Per Day Do You Spend Checking March Madness Scores?

Fans aren’t just watching games—they’re obsessively checking scores:

34% spend up to an hour daily.
20% dedicate two hours.
14% track scores for three hours.
10% claim they don’t check at all (sure, buddy).
1% spend more than seven hours checking scores.

With an average of 2.4 hours per day, that adds up—especially during work hours.

Time Spent Checking Scores

Economic Loss Due to March Madness?

March Madness isn’t just costing fans time—it’s costing billions in lost productivity.

On average, working fans plan to spend 2.4 hours per day checking scores, tracking brackets, or streaming games while on the clock. With seven tournament game days falling on weekdays, that adds up to 16.8 hours of lost working time per employee.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, every lost hour of productivity costs the U.S. economy $107.22. This means the average worker who watches March Madness loses $1,801.30 in productivity over the course of the tournament.

To understand the national impact, we extrapolated these findings to the broader workforce. The U.S. has an estimated 167 million workers, and research from YouGov suggests that 12% of U.S. adults are college basketball fans. That means roughly 20.04 million working Americans are likely to be distracted by March Madness this year.

But not everyone in the workforce is actively employed. The employment rate for working-age Americans is 60.1%, meaning a significant portion of the workforce is either unemployed or not actively working. Adjusting for this, the number of employed, working-age basketball fans drops to 12.05 million.

And not all employees are on the job at any given time. Around 2% of U.S. employees are typically off sick, while another 1.7% are on vacation. Factoring this in, the number of actively working fans who will be on the job during the tournament is 11.60 million.

When you crunch the numbers, the result is staggering:

11.60 million workers × $1,801.30 lost per worker = $20.89 billion*

In other words, March Madness could cost the U.S. economy approximately $20.89 billion* in lost productivity. When it comes to workplace distractions, few events can match the madness of March.

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Methodology

The research was commissioned by The Action Network and carried out online by Research Without Barriers (RWB). All surveys were conducted between 20th February 2025 and 26th February 2025. The sample comprised 3,000 USA NCAA fans who work full-time

You can find the full breakdown of results here.

All research conducted adheres to the MRS Codes of Conduct (2023) in the UK and ICC/ESOMAR World Research Guidelines. RWB is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and is fully compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (2018).

*This is only estimation!

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