What are the odds of filling out a perfect bracket? Unraveling the challenge with March Madness strategies

March Madness, one of the most anticipated times in college sports, is nearly here.

The NCAA basketball tournament is always a must-watch due to the amount of games in such a short time, which inevitably leads to plenty of upsets. Along with that, fans can fill out a bracket trying to predict how the tournament will play out, which adds further excitement.

However, has anyone ever had a perfect bracket?

What are the odds of filling out a perfect bracket?

The odds of filling out a perfect bracket are not in anyone's favor. Yet, every year, millions of fans fill one out in hopes they can do it.

According to the NCAA website, the odds of filling out a perfect bracket is 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (if you just guess or flip a coin) or 1 in 120.2 billion (if you know a little something about basketball).

To put that into perspective, according to an NCAA article, a group of researchers at the University of Hawaii estimated that there are 7.5 quintillion grains of sand on Earth.

Therefore, if someone were to pick one singular grand of sand at random, your odds of guessing the exact grain of sand would be 23 percent better than picking a perfect bracket by coin flip.

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Has there ever been a perfect March Madness bracket in history?

There has never been a perfect March Madness bracket in history, which shouldn't come as a surprise.

The first NCAA March Madness bracket is thought to be filled out in 1977. Since then, it's been reported that over 60 million brackets are filled out each March Madness, and yet, there has never been a perfect bracket.

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Who has come closest to the perfect March Madness bracket in history?

The longest a perfect March Madness bracket has stayed together is 49 games, which happened in 2019.

An Ohio man correctly predicted the entire 2019 NCAA tournament into the Sweet 16. It is the longest March Madness bracket that has remained perfect since online brackets have been verified.

Just last year, no bracket made it out after the first round due to No. 16 FDU beating No. 1 Purdue. In 2022, all brackets busted on the first Friday of the tournament when No. 11 Iowa State upset No. 6 LSU, 59-54.

Before the Ohio Man got 59 games correct, the longest a March Madness bracket had gone was 39 games, which was achieved in 2017.