Believe it or not, we're already in the month of March, which not only means spring break is next week, but also means the most wonderful time of the year is quickly approaching: NCAA Basketball March Madness.
It's almost time to fill out those brackets that we all know and love. Well, you like it until you rip them up after your picks are completely wrong by the end of the first weekend.
I know the Auburn Tigers, unfortunately, will not be a part of the field of 68 teams who will be picked to make the tournament on Selection Sunday March 16. Well, unless they win the SEC Tournament in Atlanta.
But this tournament gives everyone an opportunity to not only watch exciting games filled with potential upsets during the next few weeks, but also the opportunity to win $1 billion.
You read that correctly: one billion dollars.
Quicken Loans Inc. announced in January that they were going to team up with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on this Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge.
If you won this challenge, you would choose to receive either 40 annual installments of $25 million or receive an immediate $500 million lump-sum payment.
If there are no perfect brackets Quicken will award $100,000 each to the contest's 20 most accurate brackets.
According to CNN, Buffett will attend the national championship game if there's a chance you have a perfect bracket going down to the final game.
"I will invite him or her to be my guest at the final game and be there with a check in my pocket, but I will not be cheering for him or her to win," Buffett said to CNN. "I may even give them a little investment advice."
Even if you do not care for college basketball, you might as well give it a shot. Every college student could use an extra few bucks or a billion dollars works too.
This year's NCAA Tournament is different though.
There is not one dominant favorite to win it all or even a team that is a lock-in to make the final four, which makes filling out your bracket even harder this year.
Just when I thought Syracuse was a lock to make the Final Four, they go and lose to an 8-21 Boston College team at home to break their undefeated season.
Maybe you're thinking Wichita State will make it to the Final Four since they are the only undefeated team left winning all 31 of their regular season games. But their strength of schedule is anything but impressive, so who knows what will happen when they face a team from a top conference.
Kentucky, a team that was expected by some to make a run in the tournament, lost last week to South Carolina, who has the worst record in the SEC, being 11-18 overall.
Maybe No. 1 Florida will win it all since their last loss dates all the way back to Dec. 2. But they haven't exactly been dominant, as most of their wins in a shaky SEC have been close games.
With the amount of upsets and court storming that has occurred already this season, don't be surprised to see another 15-seed make the Sweet 16 like Florida Gulf Coast did last March. If that happens again you might as well put your bracket through the paper shredder.
There only happens to be nine quintillion ways to fill out a bracket, so if any of you find the ridiculous amount of time it would take to fill out every possible combination, maybe you'll get the chance to watch the Final Four next to Warren Buffett in hopes of winning that billion.
Even if it's nearly impossible to fill out a perfect bracket, take the time this March to sit back and enjoy the madness that will add to the unpredictable season college basketball has already had.
Good luck filling out those brackets. We will need all the luck we can get if we want to win that money.
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