Warren Buffet eliminates $1 billion NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge for 2015: Report

The dreams of millions of college basketball fans were shattered this week when Warren Buffet's $1 billion NCAA Tournament bracket challenge was dropped.

And it's not because the odds of winning were so minuscule (A mathematician from DePaul estimated the likelihood of a fan correctly guessing all 63 NCAA tournament games of the main draw was 9,223,372,036,854,775,808-to-1) but because the companies behind the contest are too busy suing each other to organize another one this year.

Quicken Loans, Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway and Yahoo teamed up to offer a $1 billion prize to the fan who correctly picked all 64 winners in last year's NCAA men's college basketball tournament.

The free contest was all but impossible to win, making it a safe bet for Berkshire, which would have had to pay out the prize money. And since none of the contestants made it past the first round of 32 games without at least one mistake, it seemed like a sure thing that the contest would be back.

But then the lawyers got involved. 

So, what was supposed to be a light-hearted publicity stunt ultimately turned into a series of lawsuits over who came up with the idea first.

Via moneycnn.com:

The squabbling started last year when a small sweepstakes company called SCA Promotions sued Yahoo for allegedly backing out of a deal to put on the perfect bracket contest.

Yahoo counter sued, alleging that SCA spilled the beans when it went to Berkshire to buy insurance that would pay $1 billion in the unlikely event that someone won the contest.

In February, Yahoo sent subpoenas to Berkshire seeking information about its dealings with SCA, including all communication between Buffett and SCA about the contest, according to court documents.

Berkshire responded by asking a judge to quash the subpoenas, which it called "overboard" and "unduly burdensome."

Quicken Loans spokesperson Aaron Emerson released a statement to Benzinga's Javier Hasse (via Yahoo Finance) that read: "Instead of repeating the bracket contest, we are now turning our attention to something new and innovative that will carry on our heritage of launching unexpected and engaging events that will take the nation by storm again."

All that sounds like is a bunch of rich guys having fun.

And while the odds of becoming an instant billionaire were almost non-existent, dreaming of a billion dollars made The Big Dance just a little more fun — at least until that first Cinderella upset.

Billion dollar perfect bracket already whittled down to five-percent of entrants: Report

It took only one missed layup for most of America’s billion-dollar dream to end on Thursday.

After the first game in the Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge insured by billionaire Warren Buffett, four out of five would-be winners were already finished, thanks to Dayton’s upset of No. 6 seed Ohio State.

By the end of first full day of the NCAA Tournament, two other major upsets whittled that number down to five percent of the registered players still eligible for the big prize.

Out of the reported pool of 15 million entrants, that leaves about 750,000 hopefuls remaining in the 1 in 9.2 quintillion chance for a billion dollar payoff for filling out a perfect tournament bracket.

That's 1-in-9,200,000,000,000,000,000 — more zeroes than the national debt.

After Dayton shattered the dreams of mansions and Lamborghinis for most participants, a couple of hours later No. 12 Harvard took down seventh-seeded Cincinnati 61-57.

Those two upsets virtually eliminated the majority of everyone shooting for perfection even before most people had a chance to cry in their dinner.

North Dakota State, No. 12 in the West, finished off the night by stunning fifth-seeded Oklahoma 80-75 in the third upset of the day.

Bracketeers should not give up hope.

People who get the top 20 scoring brackets will each win $100,000, though that money is reportedly being paid off either through payments on mortgages or a payment on a new house. 

Still, nothing to get upset about.