March Madness- The Idea Of A Perfect Bracket

1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. Those are the odds of making a perfect bracket for March Madness. It has never been done before, and the closest someone has been is 49 picks in a row. You must look at many variables when picking a team to move on to the next round. Whether that be points per game, defensive and offensive efficiency, or even how many turnovers they average per game. There is a lot that goes into it. In 2019, a historic upset happened in the first round: 16th-ranked UMBC beat 1st-ranked Virginia, which at the time was the only time a 16 seed had beaten a one seed. Twenty-four perfect brackets were going into the game, and 0 came out after that game.

This year, 31 million brackets were made, and 31 games into the tournament, 0 were left perfect. One of the biggest upsets of the tourney happened on the first day, where #3 Kentucky lost to #14 Oakland and broke millions of brackets, leaving fans in heartbreak and disbelief. After the first day, only .005% of brackets were left perfect, showing that anything can happen at any point, no matter how good you are.

When deciding who to pick to win each game, it comes down to luck; you could have a team that goes into the tournament undefeated and is the heavy favorite. That team then loses the first round and shakes up everyone’s bracket. As coaches have said before, anything can happen in March.