Far From A Perfect Bracket

NCAA 2018 logo

It's time to fill out the brackets for the annual madness.  March is about guessing the outcome of 63 games if you don't count the first four.

It is virtually impossible.  

Mathematicians estimate it is as low as 1 in 9.2 quintillion; a more optimistic one suggests it is as good as 1 in 128 billion.

Just so it's clear, a major tenet of bracket time is not letting overwhelming odds prevent you from picking a bracket.  Last year, my bracket in the ESPN bracket competition had a 66.5% percentage of correct answers and I ranked... 6,291,112th.

Those odds are why Warren Buffet is confident offering $1 billion dollars to an employee with a perfect bracket.

Generally bracket contests don't include the First Four games - so consider these a bonus - Radford, St. Bonaventure, Texas Southern, and Arizona State.

In the South Region - Loyola-Chicago is the only round one upset winner from there the higher seeds prevail until Virginia arrives at the Final Four.

In the East - Alabama and Butler are upset winners in the first round.  It is chalk in rounds two and three with top seed Villanova making it to the Final Four.

In the Midwest - North Carolina State and Oklahoma pull first round upsets.  Auburn gets to the Sweet Sixteen in a surprise, then Michigan State upends Duke and Kansas for a ticket to San Antonio.

Finally, in the West I'm picking South Dakota State and Providence to beat higher seed teams.  Missouri knocks out Xavier to reach the Sweet Sixteen.  Gonzaga and North Carolina meet in the Regional Final (a rematch of last year's championship game) with Gonzaga upsetting the second seed TarHeels.

The Final Four: Virginia plays Gonzaga while Villanova matches up with Michigan State.

Michigan State beats Virginia for the Division One Championship.  At least that's what I came up with - don't bet the house!

My 2018 NCAA Bracket