DENVER — March Madness is here. The best 68 Men’s College Basketball teams are about to go round for round to see who will take home the NCAA Division I Men's Championship.
You can participate by filling out a March Madness bracket. You pick the winner of each game and ultimately pick who you think will be the NCAA Championship winner. Putting together the perfect bracket is a very difficult task and there is one guy whose job is to help look at all the odds.
ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi spends his time watching as many games as possible and tracking statistics over the season. He spots trends of teams that are looking up or maybe fading behind.
“My job is to tell people who's going to be in the bracket and where they're going to be seeded. In other words, who's in, who's out," he explained.
Lunardi said the odds of producing a perfect graphic are astronomical.
“The odds are 9 quadrillion to 1 against it. That’s just how difficult it is," he said. "Basically, what we’re talking about is getting and guessing a coin flip 67 straight times correctly.”
Lunardi did say there are four teams this year that have separated themselves into an elite status: St. Louis Billikens, Duke, Michigan, and Arizona.
“I don't think anyone would be surprised to see any of those teams make it to Indianapolis for the Final Four, but history tells us, because it's frequently a tournament of upsets, that they won't all make it," he said.
Over 40 years now, all four of the No. 1 seeds making it through to the Final Four has happened exactly once in 2008.
For most major pools and challenges, the deadline to finish your bracket is Thursday, March 19 before the first full day of the men’s tournament.
You can print your own bracket here.
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