‘That’s why we watch sports’

Despite the long odds, fans come back every year to fill in their bracket in the hopes of becoming the first to successfully predict every correct result.

The longest streak of correct predictions came in 2019 by a neuropsychologist from Ohio who managed to pick the winner in the first 49 games of March Madness that year correctly.

Gregg Nigl became the first person to have a verified bracket which picked every game correctly through the tournament into the Sweet 16, only falling in the 50th game when No. 2 seed Tennessee lost to No. 3 seed Purdue in overtime.

But as daunting a task as it seems, Chartier believes it is a feat that will be achieved – he does admit that it may not be done in his lifetime.

And when it does happen, Chartier – who spends much of his time researching the art of bracketology and teaching people how to implement his research into March Madness brackets – believes it will be done by someone who knows “nothing about basketball.”

“They’re just going to, three minutes before some deadline, whip out teams that they like for their colors,” he said.

“And that’s because a lot of times you’re trying to predict literally the unpredictable, is that you’re trying to predict randomness, that there are certain games that that outcome is relatively random. Some of it isn’t. Sometimes, there’s something about a team that we just didn’t realize, it was the perfect match up for another team.”