March Madness is among us, and it’s during these times when the brackets and the bracketologists come out. Bracketology is the process of predicting the teams that will be in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. People spend countless hours studying college basketball to predict who will beat whom.

Kentucky was a good bet considering they are undefeated in the regular season. But teams like Duke and Michigan State should not be underestimated in this year’s tournament. This year will be the most difficult yet with so many strong contenders.

“I think Kentucky will win it all, considering that they are undefeated, and they usually blow out teams,” sophomore Gabe Alana said.

The idea behind a bracket is to predict every single game correctly, including the championship game. Making brackets are very difficult because there are 63 games to predict. If anyone were to get a correct bracket, they could potentially win money depending on where the bracket was made. Investor Warren Buffett offers $1 billion to whomever can make a perfect bracket.

Bracketologists, including those on ESPN, have said that getting a perfect bracket is practically impossible due to a chance of an upset. In the 2014 NCAA Tourney, Duke was eliminated by Mercer in the first round, causing millions of brackets to bust because Duke was expected to crush Mercer easily. In that same year the Dayton Flyers unexpectedly made it to the Elite 8 after upsetting Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford. These Cinderella stories are why making a perfect bracket is almost impossible.

“Kentucky is the hype, and I like to cheer against the hype,” sophomore Ibrahim Mansaray said.

The games where the team that’s expected to win ends up losing become “bracket busters.” Kansas lost to Wichita State in the second round unexpectedly, causing millions of brackets to bust. Also included in this list is Virginia’s loss to Michigan State; since Virginia was predicted to be a Final Four team, this damages millions of brackets around the country.

There are multiple ways to make a bracket, the most commonly used is the ESPN Tournament challenge. It allows a person to make 10 different brackets and gives an in-depth analysis and scouting report on how each team will matchup against each other. It includes past seedings, wins against top 25 teams and the team’s leading scorer. With all this information, it seems impossible not to win the challenge, but a perfect bracket is still very difficult. Even the best sports analysts can’t seem to make one.

Yahoo’s Tourney Pick ‘Em is another way to make a bracket and win prizes. They have celebrity pools where contestants can win whatever the celebrity is willing to offer. Some prizes can be small like a new tablet, while others could be as big as a weekend Vegas getaway for two. These prizes can attract many people, so thousands of people join these pools making the odds of winning slim.

The way people make their brackets varies with each person. Sports analysts use advanced statistical data and tournament history to make their picks. Some people have favorite teams so they make them do better in their bracket. Kentucky alone is huge factor in the brackets. Since they are almost guaranteed to go to the Final Four, every team they could have faced in any bracket prediction would be predicted to lose.