TheGhostofYost

March 22nd, 2013 at 6:46 PM ^

Do you get anything for having the least perfect bracket?  My West Region is nothing but red.

evenyoubrutus

March 22nd, 2013 at 7:06 PM ^

In 8th grade I had a teacher who offered a perfect A in every class to the student who got every game wrong (which, when you think about, would be an amazing feat) with other more innocuous incentives to whomever won the whole thing.

Now that I think about it, that was freaking insane on his part. And he was also a major Sparty brah (treated Michigan fans in his class like shit. Yes, 13-14 year olds). I guess his level of respect for school work makes a lot of sense then.

DirkMcGurk

March 22nd, 2013 at 6:46 PM ^

Zero perfect brackets then. Colorado is going to lose and overall this bracket past round 2 is a joke.

In reply to by DirkMcGurk

denardogasm

March 22nd, 2013 at 7:00 PM ^

How can you say the best bracket in the country is a joke?  It's all about luck.  There's no predicting what will happen in the late rounds any more than you can predict the early rounds.  IF the big boys are in the final 4 they pretty much always win.  That's just about the only sure thing in the tournament, and even that doesn't come true 100% of the time (see Butler in whatever year that was that they were in the final).  If you really knew what is and isn't a joke you would probably have the perfect bracket instead of this guy wouldn't you?

M-Wolverine

March 22nd, 2013 at 7:27 PM ^

It has slightly more than 0% probability of having any of those in the Final Four. 1, 2, and 3 seeds fill the majority of those slots. You can calculate that probability. And the truth is if the content was picking the first round games he'd be the best but since it's not he'll finish in the bottom section of millions.

814 East U

March 22nd, 2013 at 6:52 PM ^

I hope he is right but my BIG rooting dies after the sweet 16 (except for Michigan). I want as many BIG teams to go to the sweet 16 then I don't care. Go Blue! Beat VCU!

WolvinLA2

March 22nd, 2013 at 7:34 PM ^

I guess to each his own, but that's when rooting for the Big Ten means the most, IMO.  Illinois beating Colorado only to lose to Miami means very little.  But having a team or two in the Final Four is big and having one win it all is huge. 

A big knock against us is that the Big Ten has won so few national titles lately.  Does it hurt Michigan for another Big Ten team to win the tourney?  Kids like to play in the best leagues against the best teams.  In basketball, there is so much less head-to-head recruiting that it really doesn't matter, and it helps everyone in the conference when its teams are winning.  

That, and the conference makes more money, which gets shared with Michigan.

WolverineFanatic6

March 22nd, 2013 at 6:53 PM ^

My brackets not perfect but I do have ole miss in the sweet sixteen as well as zona. Only missed temple, cal, Pitt so far.

justingoblue

March 22nd, 2013 at 8:39 PM ^

or whatever you want to call brackets made to fit a certain role (this one is "Best March Ever") that has Harvard over New Mexico, Cal over UNLV and Saint Louis over New Mexico State. That said, it has Cincinnati and Pitt in the Final Four and Duke, MSU and OSU losing in the first round, so it's not like that's an accurate attempt to pick the field, more of a coincidence than anything else.

mGrowOld

March 22nd, 2013 at 7:19 PM ^

What I think is funny is that If the people with perfect brackets had shown their picks before the tourny started they would've been laughed at by anybody who knows anything about basketball.

To have a perfect bracket you basically have to know NOTHING about the teams playing or there is no way you'd select all the games right.

mGrowOld

March 22nd, 2013 at 7:31 PM ^

A few years ago my daughter, who knows less about basketball than I do Japanese, asked me "what colors do team X wear?"  She was filling out a bracket for a FaceBook challenge and made all of her selections based on which color uni's she liked the best.  I laughed my ass off as her picks made zero sense to me (Butler in the finals?  yeah right) but she sent it in anyways without my expertise.

She finished in the top 10 of all people submitting.

mgowake

March 23rd, 2013 at 1:01 AM ^

The 1 in 9.2 quintillion number is straight mathematics. It figures out how many possible ways the 63 game results on your bracket could be filled out. (Two to the sixty-third power.)



But it doesn't account for standard basketball logic, like No. 1 seeds always advancing in the first round or tournament champions usually having a top-four seed or Duke's dual advantage of having a legend like Coach K and never getting called for a blocking foul. If you know something about the NCAA tournament, the odds of a perfect bracket are more like 1 in 128 billion. (That's according to DePaul math professor Jay Bergen.)



Using that number, if everyone in the United States filled out a bracket, we'd see a perfect one every 400 years.

Committed

March 22nd, 2013 at 9:21 PM ^

Georgetown losing miiiigggghhhhttt help Michigan. I'm looking wayyyy down the road...but they are in the same region.



Root for Kansas to lose tonight. Michigan win tomorrow...final 4.

B-Nut-GoBlue

March 22nd, 2013 at 10:18 PM ^

Every year I get so amped and my love for this time of year comes out full steam, the brackets being part of the love for March Madness.  Then Saturday and Sunday come, each year,  and I realize how much emotional waste I've built up in hopes for being the ultimate bracket builder and succumb to minor depression while people with absolutely no clue ride these ridiculously lucky brackets.  Such a rollercoaster time of year.