It is well documented that it is nearly impossible to pick a perfect bracket. The actual odds are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 or 1 in 9.223 quintillion. Reports are that such a feat has never taken place. To be a little more realistic, if the bracket picker has any knowledge of basketball at all, meaning no crazy picks like all of the 16 seeds beating all of the one seeds or all of the Catholic schools winning their way into the Final Four (apologies to the Pope’s Picks entry), the odds are still 120.2 billion to one.
Well, believe it or not, that possibility of a perfect bracket is alive and well in our tournament. Yes, incredibly one entry, that labeled Tyrone Shoelaces, has picked all 16 games correctly at this point. So what are the odds of that taking place? Well, put it this way – if Tyrone had made those picks as a $100 parlay in Las Vegas, he’d each be walking away with a $1.4 million payout, certainly the greatest “Bass’ball Jones” ever. However, he is going to have to be satisfied with the remote possibility of winning something in the neighborhood of $300 at best – which is almost as good, right?
Noteworthy is two entries with records almost as impressive, BigLumber1 and Moochies, each of which has only one miss. OK, this is all fun speculation at this point. Keep in mind that rarely do the early leaders end up competing for the final big bucks, but, hey, with few upsets, there isn’t much material to work with.
Meanwhile, the race at the other end of the bracket is almost as impressive with the worst picks sporting a record of 9 and 7. Eight teams are tied for this “worst record so far,” but two of them have seen one of their Final Four teams fall by the wayside, giving both “Who is Homiak?” and “16 Sunrises” the current inside track on a claim to the Brandy Award. It might also be worth mentioning that the same person has title to both of these entries.