Ethan Buffalo
Multimedia Editor
68 teams enter, one team emerges victorious. It’s the time of year where anyone and everyone tries their luck at filling out the perfect bracket for the granddaddy of college basketball tournaments.
Whether the strategy is closely analyzing each team’s quality wins and strength of schedule or just which school’s mascot is the cutest, no method is incorrect when the odds of filling out a completely perfect bracket are astronomical.
Forbes claims the chances are one in 9.2 quintillion. While FiveThirtyEight estimated them at a measly one in 7,419,071,319. For context, the odds to win the Powerball are one in 292.2 million, according to Lottery USA. National Geographic has the odds of being killed by a meteor at one in 1.6 million.
So why bother participating? When the odds are so slim, where’s the fun being wrong? The trick is to embrace the chaos. Sure, traditional powerhouse Duke looks to be the favorite and has multiple pro-ready prospects including tank-sized human Zion Williamson.
A single loss eliminates a school from the tournament. So, a few missed shots here and a couple of turnovers there, and suddenly some small school named nestled in Lewisburg, PA named Bucknell University has upset the title favorites and destroyed everyone’s coworkers, relatives, neighbors and classmates’ best bracket.
WalletHub reported that March Madness resulted in $10.4 billion wagered in 2017 with nearly 70 million brackets being completed in total. The report also stated that corporate loses, from the distraction of the games were at $6.3 billion that year.
Fiscal motivation, school pride or just plain bragging rights are reason enough to fill out a personal bracket this season. Statistically speaking, each new bracket has a better chance than the last.
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