It’s that time of year again; College basketball is reaching its end, and it’s time for the craziness of the March Madness tournament. Brackets have people following the tournament closely for the chance of winning a life-changing prize.
One million dollars is the grand prize for the winner of USA Today Sports’ Bracket Challenge. In order to accept the hefty fund, you need to have a perfect bracket. ESPN and CBS Sports also have sweepstakes. ESPN is giving out ten $5,000 prizes, and CBS is giving tickets to the 2025 NCAA Final Four game.
That million dollar prize sounds amazing to win, but is it even possible? Out of the 22 million people who filled out a bracket on the ESPN site, 11 are still intact for the perfect prize as of March 22nd. The first two rounds of the tournament had some major upsets that threw off a lot of brackets. No. 11 seed Duquesne’s win against No. 6 seed BYU, and No. 14 seed Oakland’s against No. 3 seed Kentucky are two examples.
The tournament is also making an impact here at East. Teachers and students around the building are chatting about their predictions for the games, and their favorite teams.
“I was obviously rooting for Nebraska in the tournament,” teacher and coach Shane Watteyne said. “We had an awesome year beating #1 Purdue and an incredible comeback against #6 Wisconsin. This season will be one to remember. I was sad we lost on Friday.”
Other teachers in the building can be heard talking about their bracket’s failures and successes.
“My bracket is nowhere near intact,” teacher Lee Plath said. “I decided to make most of my bracket based on who I wanted to root for and mostly against. I despise Creighton, and Akron couldn’t pull off the upset for me. There were lots of picks like that for me- I went a little overboard with the upsets.”
March is a time of excitement, and tons of basketball. Creating brackets, and spending your free time watching games and rooting for your teams is one of the best ways to kick off spring. The Final Four games are in Glendale, Arizona this year, and the national championship will take place on Monday, April 8th.
