Fewer than 1% of March Madness brackets remain perfect after first day of games
Clemson guard Jaeden Zackery, left, react after a loss to McNeese State in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Fewer than 1% of NCAA Tournament brackets were still perfect after Thursday’s 16-game slate, according to several services where fans attempt the all-but impossible task of predicting every March Madness game correctly — or, barring that, win their office pools.
ESPN’s tracker listed 25,802 perfect brackets remaining out of more than 24 million filled out on its site following the final game of the day, Texas Tech’s win over UNC-Wilmington.
The NCAA said 0.0938% of more than 34 million brackets were still perfect.
The numbers were similar at CBS Sports, where 0.09% of brackets were unblemished following the first day of action.
Yahoo Sports said 99.9% of its brackets had fallen short of perfection after 11th-seeded Drake beat No. 6 seed Missouri.
Earlier Thursday, about 6.6 million brackets were busted on ESPN when No. 12 seed McNeese beat No. 5 seed Clemson 69-67.
Creighton — which saw a boost in this category because it played the first game of the day — was listed as ESPN’s top bracket buster after its 89-75 win over Louisville. There were 13,339,089 ESPN brackets busted by that game.
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