March Madness Bracket Upsets Leave Fans Reeling

Fans of March Madness faced a disappointing start to this year’s tournament as nearly 36 million brackets were shattered on Thursday following a wave of early upsets during the first round.

According to the NCAA, out of the more than 36 million brackets submitted on major online sports platforms, only around 14,000 remain unscathed after the initial 16 games in the men’s tournament.

This means, quite remarkably, about 35,986,000 brackets have met an untimely end.

The most significant upset came from the No. 9 seed TCU, which edged out No. 8 seed Ohio State with a close score of 66-64, leaving just 14.5 million brackets still intact. Moreover, Nebraska’s first matchup in the tournament turned into a disheartening experience as they suffered a 76-47 defeat against Troy, which eliminated another 2.5 million brackets.

High Point’s unexpected 83-82 victory over No. 5 Wisconsin, as a No. 12 seed, severely impacted the predictions, slashing the number of perfect brackets down to just 2.3 million. And then, when Louisville secured a strong win against USF 83-79, that number was halved again.

UNC Loses Leading Advantage

As the tournament progressed, the count of perfect brackets continued to dwindle, eventually dipping under the one million mark. TCU’s historic comeback against UNC—where they’d previously held a 19-point lead—left only a little over 300,000 brackets miraculously intact.

By the end of the day, around 14,000 brackets remained whole, constituting a mere 0.039% of the original entries, with expectations high that St. Louis would clinch a substantial win over Georgia and Gonzaga University would triumph over Kennesaw State.

Last year’s first-day attendance noted a total of 36,000 brackets, while the 2021 tournament was marked by an incredibly low count of just 121 complete entries. It seems now that unpredictability is the real essence of March Madness.