The 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 TO 1 Gamble

That’s important for pool entrants like me who know nothing about college basketball, but still want to have a chance after the first round.

I had a story on our 4:00 PM newscast today (and again at 10:00 PM) about NCAA tournament bracket pools. Is there a school or business where bracketology isn’t eating into productivity today? It seems so simple considering the odds against a perfect pool ticket are 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 TO 1.

Basic math says you could give everyone on Earth a billion pool cards and still have some uncovered possibilities!

My story was about statistics and how the past has some insight into what will happen this year. That’s important for pool entrants like me who know nothing about college basketball, but still want to have a chance after the first round.

It’s three for me this year with a total of five tickets.

One entry is with the Meriden Record-Journal. They invited me last year and were nice enough to lower the criteria for celebrity so I could enter as one. I’m back at their invitation!

I think I outscored their sports department in 2011. Even if I didn’t I’ll claim I did.

I’ve got two tickets in a pool being run by folks here at the Courant and FoxCT. Too many knowledgeable people in this pool. In spite of cashing in our NFL fantasy league I have no chance in this one.

I also bought two chances in a pool being run by a friend back at the old place. I’ve been in this one since it was done on paper!

One of the cool things about computerized pool picks is you choose a username. No one uses their real names, but maybe some former coworkers will recognize me. I’m “Fox On Fox” and “The Distraction.”

Am I ever!

4 thoughts on “The 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 TO 1 Gamble”

  1. I am in a pool of thousands on ESPN. I did my bracket picks today for the Women’s Basketball Tournament. Okay, I’ll share my final four (UCONN is a hopeful), they may be ready. I picked Baylor, UCONN, Notre Dame and Stanford with Baylor winning it all. My question is how come there are 40 games this year? That means Baylor would be the first women’s team to reach a 40 game win – men or women.
    BTW this is the first time I put in my food blog website. Hope you keep it, if you don’t that’s okay.

  2. I believe Yahoo has a 5 million buck prize if anyone gets it perfect. I know nothing about basketball and don’t care for the game, but hey, 5 million bucks.

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