Perfectly imperfect

The perfect imperfection of the NCAA tournament played out beautifully this year in a story that began last season in round one. The 16 seed has defeated the number one seed only once in tournament history. It happened last year when the University of Maryland Baltimore County blew hoops’ fans minds when they defeated the University of Virginia in the first round. UMBC didn’t make it past round two, but they went home knowing they did something amazing. 
This year, UVA came back with a vengeance from that loss and was the only number one seed to advance to the Final Four. Not only that, they made it to the title game, and went on to claim the NCAA National championship, defeating Texas Tech in an exciting overtime contest. In the process, they got the redemption they were seeking after being the biggest loser one short year ago.
The NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament is something I, as well as millions of others, look forward to every year. 
As March Madness approaches we get excited as we start preparing to fill out our brackets by looking at records, listening to the experts, and going with our own assessment of coaching, tradition and talent that
make up the 64 teams vying for a title. 
Inevitably, the big dogs — Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, and Kentucky — will be among the favorites given each has claimed the number one seed a dozen or more times. When filling out our brackets, there’s good reason for picking number ones to advance to the championship since those teams have made the Final Four 56 times, which is twice that of the “number twos.” They have been in the championship contest 33 times (nearly three times that of the second seed) and have won the title 21 times - four times that of number two. However, all four number one seeds have made the Final Four together only once — back in 2008.
The excitement of the tournament is electric because every team comes to play, so regardless of seeding you know there are going to be buzzer beater shots that decide the winner, there will be overtime games, and there will be lower seeds who pull off the upset. 
Fun fact:  The 12-5 upset is one of the most popular of all the “bracket busters,” and it’s easy to see why. It has happened 50 times, and happened three times again this year. 
So, if you dream of picking a perfect bracket, you are dreaming big because the odds of doing so are one in 9.2 quintillion. In fact, you have a much better shot at winning either the Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot when it reaches $1 Billion dollars than you have of picking the perfect bracket, as those odds are only one in 88 quadrillion.
While I do enjoy
watching a Cinderella Story unfold during the tournament, the fact that it is a single elimination bracket does present something that gives me pause. 
Teams are seeded the way they are for a reason — there is a discrepancy of talent between the number ones to the number 16s. However, due to the lose-and-you’re-done nature of the tournament, a higher seeded team can and does get eliminated earlier than they probably should. The team that pulled off the upset hasn’t truly proven they are the better team, they probably simply had a “good night,” or their opponent was “off.” There has never been a team seeded lower than eighth that has won a national championship, and that has only happened once. 
If you look at the road to other national championships, teams have to win a certain number of games in a series in order to advance. The NHL, NBA, and the MLB all have to journey down a road to prove their prowess over other teams by besting them more than once. This, for the most part, ensures that the best two teams will inevitably face off for the title. 
I know it would not be feasible to adopt a seven-game playoff series for college hoops, but when the upset happens and the top seeds fall early, do we really end up with the “best” teams in the championship?
Alas, this is an imperfection that will remain a part of March Madness. However, the perfection of the tournament for basketball fans will remain intact. This can be easily seen given there were 17.2 million brackets filled out on the ESPN site alone this year, which is just a drop in the bucket when you think about how many million were filled out on paper around
the country.
You just have to love March Madness!