The Odds Are Not In Your Favor: Crowning a March Madness Champion

W5’s office is located in Durham, North Carolina, squarely between the campuses of UNC and Duke, and as expected, we have plenty of opinions about college basketball.

A few weeks ago, our team sent in our bracket picks to win a sweet trophy, complete with a spinning mini-basketball, and the esteemed title of March Madness Champion. Even though no one at W5 picked Kansas, Client Relations Consultant Brennan Mullin still came out on top by sticking with Ohio State.

So, how do bracket creators make their choices?

Some basketball fans went on gut feelings alone.
Some predicted their favorite team or alma mater would go all the way.
Some of us looked at last’s year’s numbers and guessed based on old data.
Some…were completely random. That can work, too!

In any friendly competition, whether a basketball game or an office bracket, there will be winners and losers, but predicting perfectly is nearly impossible.

No matter which method used to create a bracket, everyone entered the competition with the same odds of predicting a perfect bracket…9.2 quintillion, according to NPR. A quintillion has 18 zeroes. Plus, according the NCAA themselves, no one has ever predicted a verifiably perfect bracket. Doing so would be the equivalent of guessing a coin flip 63 times in a row!

So, how will you choose your bracket picks next March? Even though creating a perfect bracket is almost impossible, betting against the odds and getting as close as you can still net you bragging rights and a killer trophy.