Sometimes what makes the March Madness so interesting has nothing to do with the sport itself, but the tidbits of information surrounding it.
Here are some facts and statistics about the tournament that may surprise you:
The perfect bracket
The odds of filling out the perfect bracket is 1 in 9.2 quintillion -- assuming you flip a coin for every game. That means it’s twice as easy to win back-to-back lotteries, buying only one ticket each time, than to complete the perfect bracket.
About 60 million tournament brackets were filled out in 2018, so may the bracket-odds be ever in your favor!
March Madness fever affects work
If your co-worker has headphones on, intently staring at the computer screen, don’t be so certain that they’re taking their productivity levels to new heights.
The average worker watches six hours of March Madness throughout the tournament. As a result, companies have recorded about $4 billion of corporate losses due to unproductive employees.
Superfans
March Madness fans are unlike any other.
Almost 700,000 fans attended the tournament in 2018 and 94,000 fans are expected to attend the Final Four this year in Minneapolis.
Fans are just as loyal from the comfort of their couch. About 16.6 million people watched the 2018 title game between Michigan and Villanova.
The legends
The NCAA tournament wouldn’t be the same without the legends we see every year. This includes the highest paid NCAA coach, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, who makes a $8,982,325.
And although they’re not making an appearance to the NCAA men’s tournament this year, UCLA still holds the record of eleven titles.
