Topline
Less than 0.1% of March Madness brackets remain perfect after just one day of the NCAA men’s college tournament, after several key upsets Thursday night, and there’s a good chance none of the remaining contestants will last much longer.
Princeton’s shocking first-round win over Arizona Thursday night left March Madness brackets busted.
Key Facts
Only 23 brackets submitted in the Yahoo Fantasy Sports’ “Tourney Pick ‘Em” challenge went 16 for 16 in the first day of the tournament, leaving just 0.006% of contestants’ brackets still perfect.
ESPN, meanwhile, reported significantly more perfect brackets after day one of the tournament Thursday, with 658 perfect brackets remaining, or roughly 0.003% of the more than 20 million that were submitted.
There are 787 perfect brackets remaining in the NCAA’s March Madness bracket challenge (0.065%) after several key day-one upsets, including No. 15 Princeton’s shocking 59-55 win Thursday over the second-seed University of Arizona and No. 13 Furman University’s last-minute 68-67 win over the No. 4 University of Virginia.
Big Number
1 in 120.2 billion. Those are the odds of correctly guessing all 67 games of the tournament, if contestants playing know something about basketball, according to the NCAA. Players who choose the winners of each game by a simple coin flip face staggering 1 in 9.2 quintillion odds. That’s significantly worse than the already-abysmal odds of winning the Powerball (1 in 292.2 million) or the Mega Millions (1 in 302.6 million).
Surprising Fact
There has never been a verified perfect March Madness bracket. The closest anyone has ever advanced in the tournament with a perfect one came in 2019, when an Ohio resident made it into the Sweet 16, but had their bracket busted with 18 games left to be played.
What To Watch For
More upsets. On the second day of play, No. 14 Kennesaw State nearly defeated third-ranked Xavier University in the South region, while in the Midwest region, No. 14 University of California Santa Barbara is looking to muster a comeback over No. 3 Baylor University.
Further Reading
March Madness: Here’s Where To Play Free Brackets—And Why There Likely Won’t Be A Perfect One (Forbes)
Powerball Swells To $700 Million—Here’s Why There Have Been So Many Massive Jackpots Recently (Forbes)
NCAA Tournament #13 Seeds Have A History Of Upsets, And Furman Took Advantage (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/03/17/less-than-01-of-march-madness-brackets-still-perfect-and-its-likely-theyll-all-bust-soon/