Sixteen down, 47 to go.
March Madness got off to a thrilling start on Thursday. Between heavyweight coaching matchups, viral managers and, of course, exciting basketball, there was plenty of craziness on the court during the first 16 games of the first round.
With all of that craziness came destruction to brackets nationwide, though not as much as usual.
No. 12 McNeese State pulled off the biggest upset of the day with its 69-67 victory over No. 5 Clemson. No. 11 Drake (67-57 win over No. 6 Missouri) and No. 10 Arkansas (79-72 win over No. 7 Kansas) were the only other double-digit seeds to advance.
Now that one day is in the books, how many perfect brackets are left standing? Let's break it down:
How many perfect brackets are left in March Madness?
Approximately 36,000 of the more than 34 million bracket entries across major online platforms (Men’s Bracket Challenge Game, ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, USA Today and X's Bracket Challenge Game) correctly picked the winner of Thursday's 16 games, according to the NCAA.
It's the most perfect brackets left standing after the first day since 2019, when there were approximately 60,000.
There has been much more opening day carnage in recent years. Around 2,100 made it out of the first day unscathed in 2024, and even that is a lot compared to 2023 (787), 2022 (192) and 2021 (121).
What are the odds of predicting a perfect bracket?
The odds for a perfect bracket are one in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, which is 2 to the 63rd power.
Major online platforms begin their challenges with the first round and do not require picks for First Four games. If they did, the odds for a perfect bracket would change to one in 147,573,952,589,676,412,928.
What is the longest an NCAA bracket has been perfect?
Greg Nigl of Columbus, Ohio, set the NCAA Tournament bracket record in 2019. He correctly predicted the winner of the first 49 games, breaking the previous record of 39 set in 2017 and becoming the first person to carry a perfect bracket past the second round.
No. 12 McNeese State earned the NCAA Tournament’s first upset as they knocked off No. 5 Clemson, 69-67.
