After a year without it, March Madness returned in a big way on Friday with a number 15 seed, a no. 13-seed, a no. 12-seed and a no. 11 seed that all made it through to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
And with that comes the return of ‘bracket busters’ – the annual pursuit of perfect prediction that inevitably goes awry and results in the hypothetical – or literal, for some – fragmentation of brackets.
14.7 million brackets were entered for ESPN’s tournament challenge before the start of the NCAA Tournament. After only 16 games, only 108 remain uninfected.
The first big hit came with Oral Roberts, no. 15, Ohio State’s incredible upset, as a whopping 13,992,289 brackets (95.2%), which pushed the Buckeyes through to the second round. In fact, the Buckeyes were the sixth team to be selected the most under ESPN’s brackets that hacked the nets as champions.
For those lucky enough to pick Oral Roberts, many have doubled – with 272122 brackets penetrating the Golden Eagles to the Sweet 16.
The traditional twelve-over-5 upset happened next to the state of Oregon, which declined number 5 in Tennessee. Of all the 12 seeds in the ESPN Tournament Challenge, the Beavers were actually the least selected (21.5%), among Winthrop (26.8%), UCSB (27.6%) and the trendy 12 seeds selected Georgetown (42.7%).
The next giant hit in the bracket pool was the No. 13 North Texas, which was the no. 4 Purdue decreased. Only 12.5% of all entries chose the Mean Green to progress, and almost half of all brackets (49.7%) the Boilermakers reached the Sweet 16.
The last uproar occurred when Syracuse knocked out San 6 State, San Diego, although Tournament Challenge players were not surprised because 41.8% of entries chose Syracuse to advance to the second round, the highest percentage among 11-seed. For those who choose the San Diego state, however, the loss really stings, as the Aztecs reached the Sweet 16 at 23.5% of the brackets.
For 108 participants, the pursuit of perfection continues Saturday.