Bracketology

March Madness is around the corner. Fans all over the US can’t wait to place their bets and fill out the tournament bracket. 68 Teams play the single elimination tournament and the whole country engages in a phenomenon that is called bracketology, a scientific name for an American pastime activity. But for some it is more than that. ESPN basketball analyst Joe Lunardi is considered one of the experts when it comes to picking the right teams to make it to the tournament bracket and predicting outcomes of the match ups.  As a professional bracketologist he studies the whole college season in depth and updates his bracket every week. Thousands are following him on twitter to improve their chances to fill out the perfect bracket. Lunardi’s bracketology became so famous that he lectures an online class “Fundamentals of Bracketology” at Saint Joseph’s University since 2014.

There is more than one reason for the popularity of the bracket. First of all anything can happen, especially in a do or die sport competition. The pure unpredictability supports the fascination of it. Each year we see crazy games with amazing comebacks, overtimes or buzzer beaters. Media focuses on the tournaments coverage in depth so you don’t really have a chance to escape from it. Plus, comparing your bracket with your friends and family and colleagues is always fun. Some websites offer a tournament bracket challenge. For each game you get right, you earn points. If you score the most points you will have the chance to win awesome prizes. More March Madness Pools take place at schools, offices or any other workplace in the US.  If you still think the NBA is the most popular basketball league you are wrong. At least in March college basketball takes center stage of the daily sport discussion. Even Mr. President Obama himself fills out his NCAA Tournament in a ceremony that is broadcasted on ESPN.

If you are interested in college basketball and want become part of bracketology go ahead and fill out your own bracket.

You can spend days on comparing RPIs and other key figures to get your bracket right but let’s face it: It’s almost impossible and has never been done before. Professor Jeff Bergen from DePaul University did the maths to it. Your chance to predict all outcomes correctly is 1:128,000,000,000. Warren Buffet offered $1 billion to the person that filled out a perfect bracket. It sounds crazy but due to the fact that to this day nobody has ever done it the chances were small. Still, with a little luck and some basketball expertise it is possible to do it. You should at least give it a try.