The NCAA reported Friday that roughly 14,000 perfect brackets remain out of more than 36 million submitted across major online sports platforms following the first 16 games of the men's Division I basketball tournament.
The figures indicate nearly 36 million brackets were busted on Thursday amid a string of early upsets in the first round, leaving 0.039% of entries flawless.
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, widely known as March Madness, is a 68-team single-elimination event culminating in the national championship. The first round consists of 32 games played across Thursday and Friday after four First Four play-in contests.[1]
The official NCAA Bracket Challenge Game aggregates participation and perfect bracket data from partners including ESPN, Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports and others to provide daily updates during the tournament.[1]
Perfect brackets become increasingly rare after the opening games due to the tournament's history of upsets, particularly in 5-12 and 8-9 seed matchups.
Sources
- NCAA, "NCAA Men's Bracket Challenge Game", accessed October 2024, https://www.ncaa.com/bracketchallenge
