Sports and music don’t really seem like similar subjects at all when you think about it. On the contrary, they seem like polar opposites. Detached from a Sportscenter highlight package, the realm of music attracts a far nerdier crowd than the testosterone-driven jock-dominated world of athletic endeavors. To sum it up, most diehard sports fans probably wedgied a kid wearing a homemade Pavement shirt sometime during their life. But, after eavesdropping in on the NCAA Championship Basketball game tonight, I’ve realized the two worlds aren’t so different after all. Here’s my case.

- Both camps constantly use the terms “overrated” and “underrated” when describing players/artists in an effort to make ridiculous boasts without losing credible. For example, one couldn’t simply say “Greg Oden sucks” or “Kaiser Chiefs rock!” and expect to be taken seriously. But, change that claim to “Greg Oden is overrated” or “Kaiser Chiefs are underrated,” and you are just another fan!

- Sports and music make people root for entities they know nothing about. Right now, a bunch of Midwestern alpha-males are rooting for Florida for no reason what-so-ever besides the fact they want to see them win (why doesn’t matter, gotta cheer for someone, right?). Similarly, plenty of indie kids root for a band like Deerhoof to land a gig on David Letterman, even if they have never heard them before, just so the underground scene gets more exposure.

- On the same wave length, sports fans are just as ready to abandon a successful team if they stumble onto success as a hipster is to a once-indie band gone mainstream. Remember when the New England Patriots were the spunky underdogs who captured the hearts of America by beating the St. Louis Rams some odd years back? Two more championships and continued success later, they are the most hated team in the NFL. Now replace Tom Brady with Isaac Brock and it all starts to make sense.

- When talking about either subject, fans tend to compare current day players/musicians with those of the past. So, next time you here someone say Kevin Durant is the next Magic Johnson or whatever, dont foreget the indie kids who call Connor Oberst the next Bob Dylan.

- Both have ridiculous sub-groupings. In basketball, you don’t just have offense, you got the Princeton Offense, the Triangle Offense and whatever the hell the Phoenix Suns use. In the music world, you got your country folk, your freak folk and whatever the hell Animal Collective do. Great, now all I can picture is Joanna Newsome dunking over a prone Steve Nash.

-Charles Barkley? Gnarls Barkley? Starting to make sense, right?

-Sports and music usually make devoted fans sound like complete idiots whenever they talk about them. No normal person would talk, like I just heard from the TV room, in phrases like “OK Ohio State, you probably should kill yourselves because your perimeter shooting was only fifth in the nation. Bitches.” (None of that was true, but that isn’t stopping me from using it.) Of course, most human beings wouldn’t say “The Arcade Fire cop U2’s epic style and layer on shimmering waves of instrumentation to create an album probing the darkness of mankind.” (I actually said this once.)

There you go, we aren’t so different after all Mr. Jock Hoops-a-lot. Though, just for the record, us indie kids focus our excitement on meaningful works of art, while you guys scream when one guy throws a ball through a hoop.