This year it took only one game for my hopes of perfection to go up in flames.

Trae Young put forth a valiant effort, but the Oklahoma Sooners just couldn’t recapture the magic of the early season and were dumped from the NCAA tournament by Rhode Island.

I had Oklahoma losing in the next round to Duke, who did win, so in terms of my bracket pool it wasn’t a major loss, but still by the time one final buzzer had sounded I had my first mistake.

As I wrote this Thursday evening, there were still a few games to go, but I already had multiple blemishes. Ohio State held off the Jackrabbits of South Dakota and Seton Hall beat NC State to go along with the Sooners.

Every year, I join a pool, build a bracket and hope for the best. It seems that without fail the result is the same. I nail a couple upsets (thanks Loyola-Chicago for beating Miami, which was double sweet for my bracket and my FSU fan hood), but red keeps building and by the time the Elite Eight comes around I’m thoroughly busted.

Even as my bracket is busted year after year, and I come nowhere close to winning my pool, there is just something unbeatable about picking the bracket and then seeing how it fares.

There is a 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (that is a lot of commas. It reads 9.2 QUINTILLION, with a Q!) chance of creating a perfect bracket and has never been done. William Buffett has in the past offered $1 billion to someone who beat the odds.

According to NCAA.com, you have a 1 in 10,000,000 chance of becoming president and a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of making an albatross or double-eagle in golf. Heck, your odds of winning the Powerball are 1 in 292 million.

Regardless off the odds, every year I am sad when my bracket takes that first blemish. People will sometimes make a deep run of perfection and usually it is not the “experts” who cover the sport.

My sister will usually make the decision in a close contest based on a mascot, others go by color or some other arbitrary means.

I am no expert, but I follow the sport and I know some teams (Kansas will break your heart and Duke either busts your bracket early or makes the final, nothing in-between). None of that matters though when they tip the ball (see Lehigh and Mercer beating Duke and Middle Tennessee ruining my bracket by beating Michigan State in 2016). 

My final four remains in tack for now though and regardless what happens, next year I’ll be back because March Madness is unbeatable and hey, maybe next year will be my year.

Brandon O’Connor is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at brandon.oconnor@vicksburgpost.com.