For a second straight week I have a confession to make - I never did get around to filling out my NCAA Tournament bracket. It's a little embarrassing since I work in sports, but I'm also a real person with a lot on my plate.

I will still talk about hoops and the NCAA Tournament because it's what sports fans are talking about. I might not go into many details and I definitely spend more time asking questions and listening, but I don't opt out of the conversation altogether. There are ways to alter your sports conversations based on your sports knowledge base. 

Here are a few talking points to boost your confidence when talking sports this week. 

Wowza! There is no shortage of sports headlines to talk about this week. From Tom Brady un-retiring to the NCAA Tournament and the start of baseball Spring Training games -  sports fans are buzzing. There’s a lot you can talk about and the NCAA Tournament is an easy entry point to basketball conversations.

Here are a few ideas:

• “How many brackets did you fill out?”
• “Who do you have in the Final Four?”
• “Who do you think wins it all?”
• “Who do you want to win?”
• “Which team will pull off the biggest upset?” 

Here’s a confession:

I haven’t watched more than 20 minutes of college basketball this season. I’ve been busy covering other sports, but I’m still going to talk about the NCAA Tournament because it is it’s own season. Anything can happen this month. I don’t really need to know what happened prior to the tournament, because when I watch games or highlights the announcers...

If you want the ability to give direct feedback and have honest conversations that are well-received at work you need a good relationships with your colleagues. That requires you to talk about something outside of work.

Every athlete and coach I’ve talked to throughout my 22-year broadcasting career has talked about the importance of getting away from the field, court or rink when it comes to building relationships with teammates. It’s about getting away from work and getting to know people on a personal level. For athletes that means staying away from sports talk. For you, sports can help cultivate the relationships you need to be more honest, well-received and productive at work. These topics can help you jump into small talk this week.

Several companies have announced return-to-office timelines, which has caused mixed emotions among employees.

I can’t take away those challenges or frustrations, but I can point out the benefits of in-person conversations. Talking to people in person helps improve creativity, speeds up innovation (as in, coming up with new ideas and new ways to do things) and cultivates stronger relationships at work. All those things can happen whether you’re talking about work or not.

Organic, casual conversations go a long way in improving our communication with colleagues. It’s why you should spend a little time strategizing your approach to small talk. I recommend using sports and these topics making news this week.

Your accomplishments, resume and skillset aren’t the keys to your success. Your ability to communicate is.

Now you might be thinking, “Hold up, what are we talking about here? I was looking for sports topics to talk about this week.”

Keep reading for your weekly dose of sports conversation starters and remember that small talk is the building block for relationships and a great place to practice communication skills you need in business. That’s the real benefit of talking about any of these sports topics in the news.

It is a lovely feeling to know you can walk into a room, or log into a virtual one, and say something that will allow you to connect instantly. Football can do that today. Anyone who loves football will also love a conversation starter about the big game. There won’t be a shortage of opinions, and they might not stick to sports, but it’s an easy way to connect with people who love football, food, entertainment. 

And if you have colleagues who don’t love football quite as much, there are a number of other sports topics that would make lovely conversation starters this week.

It’s Super Bowl week and the game will dominate a lot of sports, news and entertainment headlines. It’s one of the biggest events - sporting or otherwise - of the year. 

Because it’s an event, there’s no limit as to how many sports-adjacent topics you can introduce that relate to the game but don’t have anything to do with the actual matchup between the LA Rams and Cincinnati Bengals at Sofi Stadium in LA. Just take a look at this post from Instagram. 

To a hard-core sports fan it might be an odd take, but if you're someone who's more interested in music and entertainment that's one way to frame the half time show. 

Sports talk doesn't have to focus on the matchup, players, coaches or outcome. You can use sports to segue into dozens of other conversations and topics.  

The Super Bowl is a great opportunity to leverage the sports fandom of others. Football fans will already be talking about the game. It's top of mind. Every football...

Friendly reminder, this is not the week to ignore sports. Even the most casual sports fan can find a way to engage about the Super Bowl and/or the Olympics. 

The numbers are staggering.

Sports dominates TV ratings. Just take a look at the numbers. Football accounting for 75 of the top 100 most-watched broadcasts in 2021. If you add up all the sports on the list of most-watched broadcasts you would discover sports accounted for 94 of the 100 listed.

With an average draw of 18.2 million linear TV viewers per game, @SNFonNBC effectively sucked all the air out of primetime.

All told, live sports accounted for 94 of the year’s 100 largest TV audiences

Full list: https://t.co/9odVatZaLv pic.twitter.com/M6pSvd9Iq6

— Sportico (@Sportico) January 7, 2022

You know what those sports fans did before, during and after watching those games? They talked about them. Heck, they are still talking about some of those games.

Which should demonstrate how futile it is to try and ban sports talk from business settings. Sports dominates TV viewership and headlines. It’s a ridiculous waste of time to try and police sports-related conversations...

There are two sports stories making headlines and getting airtime on major news networks this week – Tom Brady and the Olympics. Even the Weather Channel paused their coverage of the blizzard in Massachusetts to talk about Tom Brady. Every time I see non-sports outlets talking sports, I’m reminded just how far sports can reach. Here’s what that means for you:

1. People who wouldn’t usually tune in to a sports broadcast are getting sports headlines this week by virtue of watching their regular news programs and channels.
2. They’re likely talking about sports from a business or news perspective, not necessarily outcomes, scores, names, etc…

This means you have even more people primed and ready to talk sporty with you this week. Take advantage. Engage in conversation. Get a different point of view and use sports to build relationships.

Here are a few other topics you can try.