Sunday, March 23, 2014

Fan with perfect NCAA bracket missed shot at $1B prize


One man had a chance of winning the 1 billion dollar perfect prize, he predicted Syracuse to be beaten by Dayton, and Mercer beating Duke. It was honestly insane that he made it this far with the ridiculous amount of upsets that have happened so far this year. Yet this weekend his dreams were crushed when Stanford upset Kansas. Now no one is in the running for the jackpot this year. Even if you are not in college basketball you know about the "bracket" and have likely created one in APUSH. Obtaining a perfect March Madness bracket is less likely then getting the winning power ball ticket.  For those out there with brackets, or even without I wanted to ask a couple of questions relating to behavioral economics. Do you think that if you won the 1 billion dollar prize that you would have long-term or short-term happiness?



http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/03/23/fan-with-perfect-ncaa-bracket-missed-shot-at-1b-prize/

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Personally, I love March Madness and I can't believe somebody could even begin to get close to a perfect bracket, especially after seeing my brackets go down in flames. If someone were to get the Perfect Bracket, or close enough to where Buffet will buy you out, I'm sure you would experience an enormous amount of short-term happiness. You would be so wealthy that you wouldn't know what to do, and would be the only person to beat those astronomical odds. Despite the amazing feelings of winning, long-term happiness is a different story. You would definitely be above the line where money is a problem. I think that question of long-term happiness has more to do with your environment and who you are as a person. Nevertheless, I would love to be the person to have a perfect bracket.

Unknown said...

I agree with Connor. Although I must say, I feel like part of the excitement involved in the March Madness bracket is the idea that it can never be perfect. Furthermore, to tie this back to our mini unit on sports economics, I feel like the games that are major upsets (like Stanford/Kansas) are the ones that generate the most buzz and the most profit.

If I were to win a billion dollars today, my income would go from zero to a billion, and that could be a very sad story as far as taxes go...