It's Time for March Madness! Here's My Bracket..

Ok, it's that time again. Time for epic upsets and Cinderella stories. Time for March Madness! You already know, I like to gamble. When $5 NCAA tournament brackets were handed around the office I was one of the first to grab one. $5 isn't bad and besides, you gotta be in it to win it!

I brought my bracket home with every intention of studying the teams and making smart picks but alas, I left it to the last minute and asked Mike to start filling it out this morning while I got ready for work. By the time I had to leave he only had his first round picks filled out with some ink on the second round. So there I was sitting at my desk this morning frantically trying to research teams and make some strategic picks.

I'm not the world's biggest basketball fan. And even though I prefer NCAA ball to the NBA, I don't pay much attention until March Madness.

Full disclosure here, I'm a Mets/Jets/Nets/Islanders fan. I couldn't pick a winning team if my life depended on it.

In similar fashion, with Division I sports I tend to root for teams that don't stand a chance. Here are my two faves, both of whom you won't be seeing on your brackets this year:

Binghamton My college basketball team is, of course, Binghamton. Because I went to Binghamton and I was there when they made it to the tourney in 2009. They didn't make it past the first round, but they made it. And it was an amazing experience I'll never forget. I will always be rooting for them but I won't set my hopes too high.

Indiana Since it's unlikely I'll see Bing back on brackets anytime soon, when it comes to March Madness I always root for Indiana. Again, this comes down to some sort of loyalty thing. I applied to Indiana for my MBA - it was my top choice because it was the best business school on my list - and by some miracle they accepted me. Ultimately I chose to go with a less expensive option, but I always felt a little loyal to Indiana.

So, I don't have anything invested in any of these teams and could care less who wins on an emotional level. That's at least somewhat of a plus for liking losing teams - championships games are no pressure whatsoever.

Back to the brackets and my struggle to fill mine out. I mean, it's not like like it's easy. If it were Warren Buffett probably wouldn't offer his employees $1 million a year for life to accurately predict the Sweet 16. Yeah, that's right - only the Sweet 16! Not even the full bracket. There will always be a Cinderella story to destroy the most carefully constructed brackets.

Actually, no one has ever filled out a perfect bracket. Back in 2014, Buffet offered $1 billion dollars to anyone who could. That's billion with a B. Spoiler alert: Buffett kept his billion and all brackets were busted by the time twenty five games were played.

The odds of filling out the perfect bracket is 1 in 9.2 quintillion. In case you're not familiar with the quintillions - let's put that into long form -  that's 1 in 9,200,000,000,000,000.

Alright, so the odds are against me. But I tried. It'll happen eventually right? Someone will one day construct the perfect bracket. Why not me?

My morning research led me to CBS Sports and their experts' picks and predictions. Mike liked Duke and, he's not alone. Four of the seven experts picked Duke. So I went with Duke. But I'm not convinced they're taking it all. If they're not ousted in some shocking manner, what will sports analysts have to talk about? Or maybe it's because my Binghamton was ousted from the tourney back in 2009 by Duke and I'm holding onto some long festering grudge. You can be the judge.

And since I had about an hour to complete my bracket I reviewed the seven expert's brackets and choose the one closest to Mike's original picks to base my next picks on. Turns out my boyfriend and bracketology expert (um, what?!) Jerry Palm were on roughly the same page.

Without further ado.. here she is! My 2019 championship bracket:

C'mon Blue Devils!

Well, at least I'm only out five bucks if it all goes to hell.

Here's my secret bracket busting predictions for fun:

1) Murray State and NBA favorite Ja Morant make it to the final four.

2) Oregon magically makes it their second National Championship since winning the original in 1939.

3) Michigan falls to Montana in the first round.

I'm hoping you created a killer bracket if you made one. But whether you did or didn't, who do you think is taking it all? Do you think Duke is going all the way or are they overrated? Have some of your own bracket busting predictions to share with me?