A reminder that the March Madness odds prove a perfect bracket is impossible

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on March 13, 2023, but the math remains the same. It’s pretty much impossible to fill out a perfect bracket.

This is an annual reminder as you get ready for to fill out your March Madness brackets — you can do it with USA TODAY’s bracket game! — in the hopes of winning lots of money and respect, that a perfect bracket is impossible.

I don’t mean that figuratively. I mean it’s ALMOST literally impossible.

The odds of getting your bracket completely perfect are astronomical. Those who have done the math have figured out that to get every single game from first round to the final, you’d need to hit on one in 9 QUINTILLION (that’s 18 zeroes, friends) odds.

But that’s if you choose randomly, which we know some people do. If you use your knowledge to do it? It’s “only” one in 120 BILLION WITH A B:

What are the odds of picking a totally perfect March Madness bracket?

Try 1 in 9 quintillion. That's 1 in 9,000,000,000,000,000,000https://t.co/rTUgYgfiiP pic.twitter.com/8Io8Aml7gv

— CNN (@CNN) March 13, 2023

THE BRACKETS ARE BACK: The USA TODAY Sports Bracket Challenge is back. $1 MILLION grand prize for a perfect bracket.

Those numbers are backed up by NCAA.com. So: Don’t feel so bad about things when your bracket immediately gets torched on Day 1.

SURVIVOR POOL: Free to enter. $2,500 to win. Can you survive the madness?