Billion Dollar Bracket Bust
By Michael Clites
On October 16, 2013, Warren Buffet purposed an offer that was all too good to pass up no matter the odds. One billion dollars to the person who can create a perfect NCAA Men’s College Basketball “March Madness” bracket. The odds of winning this absurd amount of cash is 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Let’s just say that one has better odds of winning the Powerball Lottery at 1 in 125 million chance.
But to 11.01 million people, these odds meant nothing. On the tournament’s first day, only 18,741 of the 11.01 million people got all 16 games right. Thus, only 0.17 percent of the people who had entered remained. For most, it was the Dayton upset over 6th ranked Ohio State that knocked them out of the bracket in the first round.
And for the 0.17 percent who had remained, it was the stellar upset of the Mercer Bears over Duke’s Blue Devils which knocked them out of the run.
According to bracket statistics, 97.6 percent of contestants had picked Duke to shut down Mercer. But there is heartening news for some. Warren Buffet had also announced that there would be runner-up prizes. Twenty people will be eligible to receive $100,000 runner-up prizes for picking the tournament’s top 20 most accurate “imperfect brackets.”
But for 11,000,080 people, they are the unlucky ones who remain winless in this almost impossible challenge, and Mr. Buffet’s money will remain in his pocket.
But who knows, maybe next year the offer will be given once more, and one lucky person could redeem themselves.