March Madness: How Many Perfect Brackets Remain After Thursday

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The first day of the NCAA tournament did not disappoint, unless you happened to make a bracket. 

Unexpected upsets caused millions of people’s brackets to bust in the first 12 hours of the tournament. According to ESPN, after 16 games Thursday, only 161 brackets out of over 17 million remained perfect. That translates to 0.0004% of brackets.

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Thursday’s upsets of No. 2 Kentucky to No. 15 Saint Peter’s and No. 5 Iowa to No. 12 Richmond did not help the millions of brackets made across the country. 

The remaining three No. 2 seeds will play on Friday, along with the last No. 1 seed in Arizona. Only one No. 16 seed in NCAA history has upset a No. 1 seed while only 10 No. 15 seeds have upset a No. 2 seed, with the 10th one coming yesterday. courtesy of Saint Peter’s. 

How many brackets will remain perfect after Friday’s action? Whatever the number, history is on the side of the bracket busters—there has never been a completely perfect bracket in NCAA tournament history.

More College Basketball Coverage:

  • Saint Peter’s Shows the Magic of March in Conquering Powerhouse Kentucky
  • To Send Coach K Out on Top, Duke Has Some Things to Fix
  • ‘Facing Duke Was All Business’: Ten Years After No. 15 Seed Lehigh Slayed a Giant
Published Mar 18, 2022
Madison Williams
MADISON WILLIAMS

Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University. She is a dog mom and an avid reader.

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