The impossible prize, this is what X will give owner of a perfect NCAA Tournament Bracket

Before we get much further into this article, I should warn you that by the time you start reading this to the time you finish reading, the number of perfect brackets in this year’s NCAA tournament will have already got smaller.

34 million brackets submitted

That’s just the nature of the business of brackets. Millions of people around the world fill out their brackets in the days leading up to tip off to the Big Dance, and a few days in, there are just a few still standing with a perfect bracket. My bracket didn’t make it past the first game of the First Four. I picked St. Francis over Alabama State, so my hopes for a spotless tournament flew out the window in the blink of an eye.

According to Forbes, there were a few brackets that were still perfect after the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The more specifically 1,600 of the 34 million brackets that were filled out got through the first two days having picked the winners in each of the 32 first round games, plus the four “First Four game.”

To those select few who have made it this far, congratulations. That is quite an achievement, and maybe you guys and girls want to think about buying a lottery ticket. There is no skill, or strategy to selecting your teams. Experts around the country can’t predict what’s going to happen. It’s simply luck being on your side.

1 in 9.2 quintillion…

As hard as it is for teams to get to the title game, it’s even harder for basketball fans to get to the title game with a perfect bracket. Forbes says there is a one in 9.2 quintillion chance of picking a perfect bracket if you just flip a coin for every game. If you have some knowledge of the teams in the tourney, those odds decrease to one in 120 billion. Personally, I’d have more of a chance just flipping a coin.

So far, in the history of the NCAA brackets, as long as the NCAA has been keeping track, there has never been a perfect bracket filled out. If this is the year that someone picks all 67 games correctly than X, formerly known as Twitter, will be rewarding the perfect bracket picker a trip to Mars. If they choose not to want to go to Mars, then they can settle for a $250,000 reward.

Related stories

MARCH MADNESS

Steph’s favorite player in women’s hoops

March Madness

Top 10 most iconic March Madness moments

The second round of the tournament is well underway, and the number of perfect brackets is only going to get smaller and smaller as we get later and later into the Big Dance. If you have a perfect bracket still, strap in and get ready for a bumpy ride, and I’m not talking about your trip to Mars.