Over 14,000 Perfect March Madness Brackets Remain After Day 1

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Millions of college basketball fans filled out March Madness brackets, but by the end of the first day of the tournament, over half had been eliminated. Just over 14,000 perfect brackets, or about 0.039% of all entries, survived the initial upsets. While no one has ever submitted a verifiable perfect bracket, the NCAA says the odds of correctly predicting all 63 games are 1 in 9.2 quintillion.

Why it matters

March Madness is one of the most popular sporting events in the United States, with millions of fans filling out brackets each year. The fact that so few perfect brackets remain highlights just how difficult it is to accurately predict the unpredictable nature of the tournament, where upsets are commonplace.

The details

After the first day of the NCAA Tournament, over 36 million brackets had been filled out, but more than half were eliminated by the end of the day. The biggest shock came when 12-seed High Point upset 5-seed Wisconsin, taking out about 10 million perfect brackets. Other upsets from VCU and Texas further whittled down the number of perfect brackets to just over 14,000, or about 0.039% of all entries.

• On March 19, the first round of the men's NCAA Tournament began.
• By the end of the first day on March 19, over half of the 36 million brackets had been eliminated.
• After the High Point upset on March 19, just over 14 million perfect brackets remained.
• Following additional upsets on March 19, only about 14,000 perfect brackets, or 0.039% of all entries, were left.