Nine Quintillion to 1

Odds of picking 100% of the NCAA tournament games correctly are roughly nine quintillion to one (depending on which supergeek you consult with). In fact, according to combinatorial mathematicians, if you laid $1 down on each possible variation for bracket completions, you’d be able to pay off the US national debt (approximately $8.8 trillion and counting) nearly 2.1 million times. That’s right, pay off the national debt almost 2.1 million times. Uhhhhh..we recommend that if you get to that point, you may want to get some help for your gambling problem. But thanks in advance for paying off the national debt; I had already kissed my social security goodbye.

Anyways, in an effort to be your March Madness headquarters, here are all the links you need (and some you don’t) to properly fill out your brackets this year:

PDF formatted brackets:
http://assets.espn.go.com/i/ncaa/08mens_bracket.pdf

ESPN’s “Bracketcaster:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney08/bracketcaster

One writer’s opinion
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/stewart_mandel/03/16/selection.sunday/index.html?eref=T1

Final RPI Rankings:
http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/polls/rpi/index1

Pick the seeds:
http://www.spiritmag.com/clickthis/march.php

USA Today’s Region by Region Breakdown:
East \ Midwest \ South \ West

Betting lines (lines not posted yet):
http://www.thespread.com/ncaa-college-basketball-betting-odds

Shout out to all you statisticians:
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=28883

More Matchup information:
http://msn.foxsports.com/cbk/story/7919636/NCAA-Tournament-seeds,-first-round-matchups

Separating reason from your picks:
http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/03/12/sports/college/basketball/doc45f4dd943e0c5713829494.txt

The real “sweet science”- the science of brackets:
http://www.bracketscience.com/

You’re welcome.