The 2015 NCAA basketball tournament has been nothing shy of incredible.  The number one ranked Kentucky Wildcats are looking to become the eighth undefeated team in NCAA D1 history.  This team, under head coach John Calipari, has been absolutely dominant in every aspect of the game.  Three of their starting five players are projected to be first round draft picks next year.  The tournament has already separated the strong from the weak.  Upsets have shocked the nation.  Number one seed Villanova was upset by number nine seed North Carolina State in the second round.  They had the best chance to win the tournament behind Kentucky.  Number two seed Virginia was also upset in the second round by seven seed Michigan State, who wasn’t even ranked in the top twenty-five during the regular season.  Games have constantly come down to the final seconds and players either rise or fall to the occasion.  The really crazy thing about March Madness is the amount of money generated and the fact that it is borderline impossible to fill out a perfect bracket.

First, The odds of someone filling out a perfect bracket are dumbfounding.  It is estimated that someone’s chances are one in 9.2 quintillion.  You’d have a better shot at picking back-to-back Mega Million winning lottery tickets.  Despite the low odds, ten percent of the population in the United States fills out brackets.  Warren Buffett was so confident that nobody could do it; he put a billion dollars on the line.  A billion dollars is just less than the 1.13 billion dollars a year in advertising revenue that CBS makes from the tournament.  CBS paid 10.4 billion dollars for the right to televise the tournament on their television station.  Betting on games is a huge part of why March Madness generates so much income.  14.5 billion dollars is the amount of money that was placed on games in 2014.
*All statistical information comes from usnews.com