Every
year, millions of people all across America enter the brackets into several different
pools, hoping to win lots of money.
There are a total of 64 teams each year that make the tournament,
forming four different regions from all across the United States. The teams battle it out in the single game
elimination tournament and must win six consecutive games to be named the
nation March Madness champions. There are
hundreds of billions of different scenarios that could play out in the
tournament, and as always, there are several upsets.
There are many millions of people trying to pick out the
perfect bracket, but the odds aren’t even close to being in your favor. Some companies are so sure that you won’t
even come close the filling out a perfect bracket, that if you do, they are
offering one BILLION dollars to anyone who can pick the perfect bracket. This is how sure they are, and how slim the
odds are, that no one can statistically come even close to picking the correct
bracket. You are even roughly 5 billion
times more likely to win the lottery than you are of picking out the correct
bracket.
Like almost any deal, however, there are always some
curves, or ways around. There are 64 teams’
total and 4 regions, making 16 teams per region. The 16 teams are seeded, 1 to 16, based upon
their skill, one being the best. If you
look into the statistics, a 16 seed, who always plays the one seed in the first
round, has never lost to a one seed in the history of the NCAA March Madness
History. You can therefore conclude that
if you assume that all of the number one seeds will win in the first round,
your chances of having a perfect bracket will increase by 128 million, which does
come close to even putting a dent in your overall odds, but hey, it helps.
There is always frustration when it comes time for March
Madness, but again, when isn’t there people getting frustrated when money is on
the line? There always seems to be several
upsets every year. There is even, occasionally,
a time when a 15 seed beats a 2 seed in the first round. There is also some years where there is
almost no upsets, it is all completely based upon probability. And because every game is based on
probability, there is still a slim chance that any team could win a game, and
when there is 63 games to be played in total, that’s all any team needs.
Hampson, Rick.
"Why You Won't Win March Madness Billion-dollar Bracket." USA Today.
Gannett, 16 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
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