Every year, millions upon millions of people fill brackets out for March Madness. Most of know we aren’t going to come close to being perfect. We just hope that we do better than our buddies. However, we still follow the results with bated breath hoping we get them all right.
Typically, every bracket in the country has at least one loss after the first weekend. But not this year. This year, one bracket out of the 70 million (according to NCAA.com) that were filled out is still perfect after the first two rounds.
It is the first time that the NCAA has had a perfect bracket after two rounds but not the first time anyone has ever done it. Back in 2010, ESPN had one that an autistic high school student from Glenview, Illinois, filled out.
His imploded in the Sweet 16, but he still accomplished something no one else had ever done before—until now.
The name on the bracket is “Center Road.” No one has uncovered who this person is, but Bovada has decided to give him/her odds on whether the bracket can do the impossible and become the first perfect bracket in the history of the tournament (or at least as long as there has been a bracket challenge).
- Will There Be a Perfect Bracket on the NCAA’s 2019 Bracket Challenge?
o Yes +4000
There is a reason why the odds are so high—because it has never been done before. There is also a pretty good reason that has been the case as well. You have 68 teams of varying levels of skill and talent in a single elimination tournament. There are just way too many variables that have to be considered for so many outcomes to be accurately predicted.
How often have we seen the UCF’s of the world make that last second tip-in to take down the heavily favored Duke’s? It happens all the time. The fact that “Center Road” didn’t miss any of the upsets in the first round is impressive. But he also benefitted from history being made in the second round. It was the first time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 that every favored team won in the second round.
Predicting every upset in the first round is crazy enough but also predicting that history would be made in the second round? Incredible. This person is either incredibly lucky, is a college basketball savant, or some combination of the two.
But luck always runs out—eventually. So, does that mean that betting on “Center Road” to remain perfect is a waste of money?
Absolutely not.
Maybe this is the year where are the incredibly talented teams that you expect to win actually do. Perhaps, for once, the tournament takes a logical course, and the winner is beyond the shadow of a doubt the best team in college basketball.
Or maybe his/her bracket implodes as the kid’s bracket did back in 2010. But in case it doesn’t, a $100 bet will win you $4000.
With great risk comes great reward, after all.
