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A Niagara University student filling out his bracket for March Madness.
A Niagara University student filling out his bracket for March Madness.

Billion Dollar Bracket

by niagarau
Thu, Mar 20th 2014 10:30 am

 

Billion dollar bracket

Billionaire entrepreneur offers huge cash prize for a perfect bracket

by Nicco Gentile

Along with the Irish celebration of St. Patrick's Day comes another popular tradition: March Madness. Billionaire entrepreneur Warren Buffet has offered $ 1 billion to one lucky fan who can successfully select the perfect March Madness bracket.

 Yes, $1 billion. 

"It's going to be fun," Buffet said.  Just like all the other fans, Buffet has to wait in suspense to see the outcome of the tournament.

This year, March Madness will take over sports channels across America from March 18 - April 7. More than 50 million Americans fill out a bracket every year, however, those numbers are expected to jump with this year's added incentive. But, before you start filling out your bracket, here are some things you should know about March Madness and the so called "bracketology."

For starters, it is extremely difficult to pick a single winner for the tournament, let alone a perfect bracket. A perfect bracket consists of selecting every winner of every game correctly. Sounds impossible right? The odds of selecting a perfect bracket are one in 9.2 quintillion. Making it easier to be struck by a meteor, multiple times.

 "A billion dollars would be great, but I don't have a chance," said Karl Wilms, an NU student who isn't too excited about the odds.

The University of Florida is currently ranked as the No. 1 team according to the AP Power Rankings. Finishing the regular season with 32 wins and only two losses, it seems logical to say the team is this year's favorite to win the March Madness tournament. 

The thing with this magical tournament is that any team can win it all. Although unlikely, there have been "Cinderella" stories in practically every tournament that has been played. There are underdogs in every tournament, but some years, these weaker teams offer the biggest challenges for the top-ranked teams. The lower-seeded teams always seem to have something more to prove, which makes every game important. This was the case in 2006, where the George Mason Patriots began the tournament as the 11 seed in their division. That year, the team made it to the Final Four. This year, the No. 1 seeds is the Florida Gators in the Southern Division, Arizona Wildcats in the Western Division, Virginia in the East and Wichita State in the Midwest Division.

A total of 63 games will take place at this year's tournament to not only decide the winner of March Madness, but to discover who will win what is now referred to as the Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge. Although everyone who enters would love to be cashing in a billion dollars at the end of the week, the top 20 highest scoring imperfect brackets will receive a consolation prize of $100,000, not a bad prize. $1 million is expected to be donated to inner-city nonprofit organizations in Detroit and Cleveland.

Registration for the competition will run up until March 19. Only the first 15 million entries will be eligible for the billion-dollar prize.

To sign up, visit:

https://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

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