Mathematicians have estimated that there is a roughly 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 chance of filling out the perfect NCAA Tournament bracket. Two years ago, there were only two perfect brackets remaining out of 6.45 million ESPN entrants before the end of the second day of game action. This March, filling out the perfect bracket could literally change your life.
Quicken Loans and investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s company, have teamed up to offer a $1 billion prize to anyone who enters their contest and can correctly predict every single winner in the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve seen a lot of contests offering a million dollars for putting together a good bracket, which got us thinking, what is the perfect bracket worth?” Quicken Loans president and chief marketing officer Jay Farner said, via the Detroit Free Press. “We decided a billion dollars seems right for such an impressive feat.”
The companies are also offering to split $2 million among the creators of the 20 most accurate brackets in the contest. Quicken was founded by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. Buffett is proud to insure a $1 billion prize — which will be paid in a lump sum of $500 million or $25 million per year for 40 years — for something that simply involves filling out a piece of paper online.
“Millions of people play brackets every March, so why not take a shot at becoming $1 billion richer for doing so,” the multibillionaire said. “While there is no simple path to success, it sure doesn’t get much easier than filling out a bracket online.”
Participants can register for free at this Facebook link from Monday, March 3 through Wednesday, March 19. While filling out the perfect bracket may be next to impossible, there’s no reason you can’t be one of the 20 people who wins $100,000 for filling out the most accurate bracket.
