It’s that time of the year again when we gather around our televisions to see if our favorite team can emerge from the field of 68 as the NCAA men’s basketball national champion. We put our faith in teams we could generally care less about just because we have them making a Cinderella run in our March Madness bracket. The atmosphere of the March men’s college basketball is nearly inescapable, just judging by the number of brackets alone (more than 11 million brackets were filled out online at ESPN.com alone). When this time of year comes around, it seems as if nearly everyone is somehow affected. The real question is whether or not all the commotion of March Madness deserves recognition as a national day off.

Many employees are undoubtedly likely to fill out a bracket for fun. While there is no problem with employees filling out these brackets, the problem arises once the first two days of the tournament begins as 32 basketball games are crammed into a two-day marathon. If the first two days of the tournament were on the weekend, then it might not be such a big deal, but the onslaught of games begins around noon on Thursday and continues late into Friday night. That means both Thursday and Friday afternoons are jam-packed with employees constantly checking their brackets and catching glimpses of game highlights and scores.

The chaos of March Madness presents a massive distraction from the work at hand. CBS recently released the viewership of this tournament’s first two days of basketball action, and it was revealed Friday viewership was the most for any NCAA Tournament in 23 years.  While we can’t assume that this increase was related to employees devoting work time to basketball watching, some evidence supports the idea. According to an MSN survey, 86 percent of those surveyed planned on devoting some time during the workday to tournament-related activities. An even more surprising statistic from the survey was 25 percent surveyed plan to commit at least two work hours each day on Thursday and Friday to following the tournament.

With that much time committed to the tournament, businesses should be worried about employee productivity. An annual study from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. reports that employers across the nation are likely to lose more than $1.2 billion for each unproductive work hour caused by March Madness. However, studies have shown these wasted wages do not have noticeable long-term effects. Even Challenger CEO, John Challenger, recognizes that these two days of lost productivity have a negligible impact on the big picture of company profits.

While there may be no significant long-term productivity consequences, companies should definitely consider the advantages of closing the office for the first days of March Madness. The concerns over whether people should work or not is always looked at by the negatives, but sometimes it’s best to seek out the advantages of the situation. With U.S. employers losing potentially more than $1 billion per hour due to unproductive work, maybe it would indeed be best to let them off.

Were companies to shut down the offices, more people would be likely to travel to see their alma maters play live. Watching the tournament online at a desk is one thing, but being at the game and experiencing the electricity of the tournament in person is a whole other animal. For example, Milwaukee’s BMO Harris Bradley Center (home to the Marquette Golden Eagles) hosted tournament games for the seventh time this year. The 2014 tournament games expect to produce around $4.6 million of economic revenue for the Milwaukee area. With the Badgers playing two tournament games just an hour-and-a-half away from campus, there would have been great temptation to make the journey. However, what holds many fans back is their commitment to work or inability to be released from their work obligations. If we cut the employees some slack, then both businesses and cities alike have money to gain, as fans would most likely be more willing to make the journey to watch their beloved teams play.

As a student, it seems just as reasonable to cancel classes on the first two days of the tournament. This idea is especially important at universities like the University of Wisconsin where our fellow students are playing to represent our school on a national stage. As a student body, we are extremely passionate and dedicated to anything Badger, and this is especially true in regards to sports. This tournament is a chance to show our school pride, and we should be given that opportunity whenever possible. Additionally, a large portion of college students across America are heavily devoted to following every game because of their brackets and their standing within their tournament pools.

Nowadays, students are constantly distracted in class by the option to recheck their Facebook page every five minutes or update their Twitter feed about the guy in the second row who fell asleep and is snoring. Just imagine how many laptops and phones will be honed in on tournament action during class. The professors might as well not show up because the small portion of students who even go to class would be too preoccupied with the games they are missing in the tournament. These two days are a waste of learning time because many students don’t bother to pay attention or show up, so we might as well get the days off to socialize and grieve about how bad our brackets look.