March Madness: Only 23 perfect brackets are left after wild upsets from Furman, Princeton on Thursday
We're only halfway through the first round, but there are very few perfect NCAA men's tournament brackets left.
Furman and Princeton took care of that.
Just seven games into the first round of the NCAA tournament, only 0.06% of brackets made through Yahoo Sports were still perfect. By the end of the night, only 23 perfect brackets remained.
The drop-off happened pretty quickly, too. No. 13 Furman stunned No. 4 Virginia, 68-67, on Thursday afternoon in the second game of the day after JP Pegues drilled a 3-pointer from the wing in the final seconds. That gave the Paladins just their second-ever NCAA tournament win, and first victory since 1974.
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Only 13.5% of Yahoo brackets picked Furman to win its first game. Only 42% of brackets had No. 8 Maryland beating No. 9 West Virginia in the first game of the day.
That left just 5.4% of brackets perfect after the opening two games.
No. 7 Missouri’s win over No. 10 Utah State in the third game then left just 2.88% of brackets perfect. Utah State was one of the most popular upset picks heading into the tournament, and the Aggies were actually favored to win. Missouri led nearly the entire way, however, and then surged ahead near the end to take the 11-point win.
After that game, 20.8% of brackets were 0-3.
Princeton then cut the group of perfect brackets down even more. The Tigers shocked No. 2 Arizona with a 59-55 win later on Thursday afternoon — which ruined plenty of brackets, including one from President Joe Biden, who had the Wildcats as his national champions. Arizona was the sixth-most popular pick to win the whole thing, and the most popular No. 2 seed. Only 2.94% of users picked Princeton to beat Arizona.
The rest of the first-day slate was much calmer. Outside of No. 9 Auburn beating No. 8 Iowa, and No. 10 Penn State absolutely rolling over No. 7 Texas A&M, the higher seeds won out the rest of the way.
Still, by the end of the day, only 23 brackets picked all 16 games correctly.
Actually completing a perfect bracket is the ultimate NCAA tournament dream, even though the odds of doing so are astronomical. It just usually takes more than a few hours to see this many busted brackets.
