Over 31 million brackets were filled out this year via the Men's Bracket Challenge, ESPN, CBS and Yahoo and not a single one remains perfect after the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Only 2,100 brackets were perfect after Thursday’s opening slate, which was vastly more than a year ago when only 787 brackets were perfect. Only seven of those 2,1000 brackets remained spotless when the last four Friday games tipped. Six of those brackets were busted after 12-seed James Madison upset 5-seed Wisconsin. The final bracket was toppled less than an hour later after 9-seed TCU lost to 8-seed Utah State.
There has never been a perfect bracket tracked in the history of the NCAA Tournament, and if we’re being honest, it’s a near certainty there’ll never be one. In fact, a video posted on the NCAA’s official website explained the odds of a perfect bracket is technically 9.2 quintillion.
The last bracket standing this year made it through 30 games. The closest anyone came to perfection was in 2019 when someone nailed 49 straight picks. That year also saw a record 55 teams correctly picked. However, it wasn’t the person who won 49 consecutive games as that bracket finished with 54 winning picks.
Brackets were busted early this year as around 12,349,040 of the 31 million entered started the tournament 2-0. 9,228,156 were eliminated after the first game when 8-seed Mississippi State lost to 9-seed Michigan State. Another 9,252,804 were culled when 11-seed Duquesne stunned 6-seed BYU.
Other teams that eliminated the most brackets as the day went on included 14-seed Akron (564,359), 15-seed Long Beach State (213,578), 16-seed Wagner (66,720), 14-seed Morehead St. (219,408), 6-seed South Carolina (1,131,625) and 10-seed Nevada (691,908). All other teams combined for 576,089 eliminations.
