Despite the impossible stakes of winning, March Madness enthusiasts continue to strive for the perfect bracket.
With lots of upsets in this year’s March Madness Tournament, the Quicken Loans’ “Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge” through Yahoo quickly became an impossibility. The contest promised $1 billion in prize money split between anyone who could predict the outcome of all 63 games correctly, but with so many games played, a perfect bracket is very near impossible.
Despite the fact that the tournament is still being played, and the bracket challenge’s millions of entries, it is already evident that no one is going to win the prize. Quicken Loans still plans to give $100,000 in home renovations and mortgage payments to the top 20 closest to a perfect bracket, and they are already talking about sponsoring another tournament next year.
Even though they lack a winner, Quicken Loans’ sponsorship of the bracket challenge is already being labeled one of the best advertising moves of the year, getting the company exposure to millions of hopefuls. Some of the upsets that have ruined brackets include 12 seed Harvard defeating the 5 seed Cincinnati, and Mercer, a 14 seed, defeated Duke, a 3 seed.
Since no one is left with a perfect bracket, one of the most watched brackets in the country is Barack Obama’s. The President fills out a bracket each year, and this year he has Michigan State winning it all, despite the fact that they are a 4 seed.
Though the teams are still undetermined, the championship game is set to be played on April 7. With so many people invested in March Madness due to their brackets, it is highly anticipated and sure to be an exciting game.
Quicken Loans’ bracket was also advantageous for college students—instead of the minimum age for entry being 21, they lowered it to 18. Though the statistical probability of winning is practically non-existent, due to all the publicity, the challenge will probably have even more people next year—the chance at $1 billion is just too good to pass up.
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