March Madness

The odds of a perfect bracket are basically zero. If you guess every single game randomly, your chances of picking a flawless bracket are roughly one in 9.2 quintillion, meaning you are way more likely to win the lottery or get struck by lightning.

Even with deep basketball knowledge, it is nearly impossible. Even if you know all the teams and make educated guesses, mathematicians say your odds only improve to about one in 120 billion.

Corporate America loses billions. Companies across the United States lose an estimated four billion dollars in workplace productivity every single year because employees are too busy watching games and managing their office pools.

An Illinois high school official coined the name. Henry V. Porter, an official with the Illinois High School Association, was the very first person to use the phrase March Madness in a magazine essay he wrote way back in 1939.

The tournament started with just eight teams. When the very first NCAA tournament tipped off in 1939, only eight schools were invited to play, which is a far cry from the massive 68-team field we watch today.

Oregon won the inaugural championship. The Oregon Webfoots, who are now known as the Ducks, took home the very first tournament trophy by defeating Ohio State in front of about five thousand fans.

The phrase Sweet Sixteen is actually trademarked. The NCAA had to fight a legal battle to use the term, which was originally trademarked by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association for their own state basketball tournament.

A number sixteen seed rarely beats a number one seed. It took until 2018 for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to absolutely shock the world and become the first 16-seed to ever take down a top-seeded Virginia team.

UCLA holds the ultimate winning streak. Thanks to legendary coach John Wooden, the UCLA Bruins won an unbelievable seven consecutive national championships from 1967 to 1973, a record that will probably never be broken.

The selection process is highly secretive. A private committee of athletic directors and commissioners meets in a hotel room to secretly debate and decide exactly which 68 teams will make the final bracket before Selection Sunday.

Teams get to keep the actual hardwood. When a team wins the national championship, it is a massive tradition for the players and coaches to cut down the basketball nets, and they even get to take home the literal wooden center court from the arena.

Billions of dollars are legally wagered. The American Gaming Association estimates that fans legally bet over fifteen billion dollars on the tournament every year, completely dwarfing the Super Bowl.

Only one person has ever played and coached a winner. Bob Knight is a total college basketball legend because he is the only person to win a championship as a player for Ohio State in 1960 and later as a coach for Indiana.

There is a massive television contract involved. CBS and Turner Sports paid a staggering 8.8 billion dollars for the exclusive television rights to broadcast the tournament games over an eight-year period.

You do not even get paid for a perfect bracket. While Warren Buffett famously offered a billion dollars to anyone who could pick a perfect bracket in 2014, nobody won it, and no one has ever verifiably submitted a flawless bracket in the history of the internet.