The end-of-season college basketball tournament is a basketball fan’s dream come true. For fans there is nothing better than a ton of games, upsets and most of all filling out the tournament bracket with friends and family. While 64 teams fight for the ultimate goal of holding up a championship trophy at the end of the month, and underdogs come out of the dog house and show who they really are, March Madness is arguably more for the fans.
Bracketology, as it is commonly known, is the act of picking and predicting the outcome of games or tournaments. Most commonly used when talking about March Madness, it is nerve-racking and exciting all rolled into one. Everyone is hopeful when they fill out their brackets, but things typically go wrong fairly quickly.
According to Yahoo Sports, despite millions upon millions of brackets submitted each year, there has never been a perfect bracket. In fact, the chances of getting a perfect bracket are one in 9.2 quintillion. However, those odds don’t stop college basketball fans from trying to become the first person to create a perfect bracket.
Winning March Madness is important not only to individuals but to families, as well.
Despite the odds of not getting a perfect bracket, Noah Watson enjoys creating a bracket with his family.
“We have a competition. Every year the winning family member gets to have bragging rights,” Noah Watson (‘25) said. “While this isn’t any major prize, bragging rights mean everything for me.”
Current Math 3 and AP Statistics teacher, Janis Houlihan, creates a tournament challenge for all of her students to join. Students always love this challenge that Mrs. Houlihan puts out because it creates some friendly competition between friends. Students participating in this challenge is one of the things to look forward to in the class.
Upsets make every round interesting and unpredictable. Last year was a great example of this, as number one seed Purdue was taken down by number sixteen seed, Farleigh Dickenson. This has only happened one other time as 16 seed UMBC took down number one overall seed Virginia in 2017.
However many other games bust a lot of brackets besides the 16 against one seed. If you’re picking between a 5 and a 12 seed you might want to be cautious on picking the higher overall seed. According to NBC, there have been a total of 53 12-seed over 5-seed upsets since the tournament began in 1985. While this might not be a super high number, compared to the likelihood of other upsets this upset is highly likely.
No matter if you are a fan of basketball or not, making a bracket is something all can enjoy. Even if you know nothing about basketball or a lot it doesn’t matter.
So what is the best strategy for picking a bracket?
Unfortunately there isn’t a proven, sure-fire strategy that has become obvious over the years. While many people try to do the math and come up with the right picks that typically doesn’t fare well for them.
Sometimes the best way to fill out your bracket may just be to go with your gut. Go with your favorite mascot, favorite color etc. Sometimes these ways of picking a bracket may just end up working better than any other way.
The truth is that there is no right way to pick a bracket and that is the reason why they call it March Madness. No one truly knows what’s going to happen.
So get your brackets finished and get ready to enjoy the ride. Chaos will most likely ensue and many upsets will take place. Underdogs will forever cement themselves as a part of this great American tournament.
And maybe, just maybe, you will be the first person ever to get a perfect bracket
