Busted Bracket? You're Not Alone

If you follow college basketball at all you know March is inherently a mad time — a 68-team, single elimination tournament featuring the best teams in college basketball will do that.

Not to mention millions of people filling out brackets, then watching dutifully to see if their picks were correct. (Via State Farm Insurance)

And if that weren’t enough, this year there’s a $1 billion dollar perfect bracket prize, courtesy of Warren Buffett and Quicken Loans hanging in the balance. No pressure right. (Via Yahoo)

So how are people fairing so far?

Well, to put it lightly — not very good. As ESPN’s Darren Rovell tweeted Friday afternoon after the first 20 games just 66 perfect brackets remained on ESPN. And only 16 were still eligible for that big paycheck from Buffett. (Via Twitter / darrenrovell)

Which makes us think TMZ’s guess at how Warren Buffett is feeling right now is probably fairly accurate.

The biggest blows to folks brackets so far have been Ohio State’s loss to Dayton in the first round — a game which USA Today reports ended more than 80% of those billion dollar bracket dreams.

And of course that Duke game, we won’t spoil how it ended —

but diddukewin.com most definitely will. Ouch.

Now some, presumably seeing the chaos coming, tried to cash in on Buffett’s bank roll early.

Early Friday, one writer for Slate, who had the first 16 games correct, offered Buffett the chance to buy him out for the relatively low price of $10 million.

Buffett of course didn’t bite, and now, surprise, that writer has several games wrong.

Those kinds of tough breaks had some turning away from the tourney and towards a higher power — sending this picture around Twitter. (Via Twitter / @NelsonRaegs)

But for all the discussion about the best brackets, there’s been at least a little talk about the worst.

Deadspin found this gem. It’s got Villanova playing themselves in the elite eight and two teams from the same side of the bracket playing for the national championship. They call it a “hot mess.” We’d agree.

But we think we can do them one better.

One Newsy anchor, who will remain nameless, miraculously picked that Mercer upset of Duke. However, she also picked Duke to win the whole thing.

How’s that for a Cinderella story?