Out of millions of March Madness brackets, Nebraska student finishes near the top

University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Calan Mikos only had time for one March Madness bracket submission this year, but that solo shot ended up being one of the top NCAA men’s tournament brackets in the world.

His submission to the ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge tied with 16 other brackets to finish 34th out of 24 million brackets submitted worldwide. Out of 63 games played in the NCAA Men’s Tournament, excluding the four play-in games that aren’t typically counted in March Madness bracket competitions, Mikos correctly guessed the winners of 54 games.

“It’s still shocking to me that it was that good,” Mikos said. “After the Sweet 16 round, I told my friends this could be a really good bracket, and they kept texting me, asking how my bracket was doing. I kept updating them with where it’s ranked in the world, and that number just kept getting lower and lower. Even though there’s not really any prize money involved, it’s pretty cool to see.”

The tournament bracket challenge, which typically receives entries from major sports fans and casual spectators alike, is just one of several bracket competitions, but ESPN’s garners the most submissions. The sports broadcasting company’s challenge this year received a record number of entries with 24.4 million submissions – up 10% compared to last year’s record of 22.6 million entries.

Many analysts have tried to keep track of the success rate of the bracket challenges, since the odds of creating a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. NCAA has said that if every person in the United States filled out a completely unique bracket that was at least 66% accurate, it would expect to see a perfect bracket 366 years from now.

Mikos, a senior civil engineering major, didn’t spend a whole lot of time analyzing his bracket picks, but since nine Big Ten teams, including Nebraska, made the tournament, he had a small upper hand of getting to watch more games with teams like Michigan, Illinois, Purdue and Iowa.

“With Nebraska being in the Big Ten Conference, I watched a lot of Big Ten basketball, so throughout my entire bracket, I was pretty high on all the Big Ten teams, and I just thought Michigan was the best team overall throughout the entire year. They also had the easiest path to win the championship,” Mikos said.

Betting on the Big Ten turned out to be a good hunch. The Michigan Wolverines, a conference powerhouse, beat the University of Connecticut, which made the championship game after defeating Big Ten member Illinois. Purdue, another Big Ten team, was close to the Final Four round but lost to Arizona. Nebraska, Michigan State, Wisconsin and UCLA were the other conference teams that made the tournament but fell short.

Mikos correctly guessed that Nebraska would win its first two games, and it was even better, Mikos said, to watch those wins against Troy and Vanderbilt in person when the team played just about a six-hour drive away in Oklahoma City.

“It was definitely cool to follow the team,” Mikos said. “Watching Nebraska basketball has been really fun this year. I’ve had season tickets all four years, so having my senior year end like this, it’s been pretty sweet to see.”

Along with winning a record number of games this season and inching to the program’s highest Associated Press ranking, this year’s Nebraska men’s team also netted its first NCAA tournament win. The Huskers made it to the Sweet 16 round for the first time and fell in a last-minute loss to rival Iowa.

Mikos had the Huskers, instead, winning that Sweet 16 matchup. It was one of only nine picks that fell short in his bracket. He expected a few upsets to happen in the first round, but the University of Miami ended up pummelling Mizzou, and Louisville pulled out a narrow win against South Florida. Mikos, like many other basketball fans, had Florida beating out Iowa, but the Hawkeyes stunned the Gators in a 73-72 win. The series of losses cost the UNL student two incorrect guesses.

But he’s still riding the high of securing a bracket finish that has earned him quite a few bragging rights among his friend group.

“I don’t know if I can come back from this one,” Mikos said. “I wouldn’t say watching more and more basketball makes you a better bracket selector. It’s cool that I just got really lucky this one time.”