It isn’t called March Madness for no reason, and this year’s NCAA division I college basketball tournament has not disappointed.
When billionaire investor Warren Buffett offered $1 billion to anyone who could fill out a perfect tournament bracket, it seemed the entire country jumped on board.
However, Buffett isn’t stupid — no one has ever officially completed a perfect bracket. In fact, a math professor from DePaul University concluded the odds of filling out a perfect bracket were 1 in 9.2 quintillion.
This is because there are always upsets — lower ranked teams beating higher ranked teams — and they are always very unpredictable.
In the first round alone there were eight upsets, perhaps the biggest when the lowly, 11th-ranked Dayton Flyers conquered the sixth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes — an upset that prevented 80 percent of the Americans who had filled out a bracket from winning the billion dollars.
By the end of the first weekend and 48 games later, everyone in America had at least one blemish on their bracket.
According to Slate.com, every American could fill out a random tournament bracket for the next 290 million years, and there would still be a 99 percent chance that no one would win Buffett’s contest.
In a perfect world, the four number one-seeded teams from each region would win out and advance to the Final Four. However, this is not a perfect world.
Florida is the only one seed to advance to the Final Four. The other three teams are the second-seeded University of Wisconsin Badgers, the seventh-seeded University of Connecticut Huskies and the eighth-seeded University of Kentucky Wildcats.
The Wildcats have their work cut out for them. A number eight seed has only one the tournament one time — Villanova in 1985 — and Florida and Wisconsin look nearly unstoppable.
Don’t give up hope just yet Kentucky and Connecticut fans. If fans have learned anything from watching college basketball, it’s that anything can happen. Last year in the Elite Eight round of the tournament, Kevin Ware landed awkwardly after attempting to block a shot and broke his right leg on the court.
Both games will be played Saturday afternoon. The Gators will face the Huskies at 3:09 p.m., while the Badgers will take on the Wildcats at 5:49 p.m.
Regardless of who wins the competition, it’s sure to be full of intense thrillers and buzzer beating finishes.
