After a year without it, March Madness made a grand return on Friday with a No. 15 seed, a No. 13 seed, a No. 12 seed, and a No. 11 seed all progressing to the second round of the NCAA tournament .
And with that came the return of “bracket busters” – the annual quest for perfect prognosis that inevitably goes awry and results in the hypothetical – or literal, for some – shredding of brackets.
There were 14.7 million brackets entered in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge prior to the start of the NCAA tournament. After only 16 games, only 108 are spotless.
The first big hit came with No. 15 Oral Roberts’ stunning upset from No. 2 Ohio State, as a whopping 13,992,289 braces (95.2%) saw the Buckeyes advance to round two. In fact, the Buckeyes were the sixth most-chosen team among ESPN’s brackets to cut the nets as champions.
For those lucky enough to pick Oral Roberts, many doubled – with 272,122 hooks the Golden Eagles moved on to the Sweet 16.
The traditional 12-over-5 upset took place when Oregon State No. 5 Took down Tennessee. Of all 12 seeds in the ESPN Tournament Challenge, the Beavers were actually the least picked (21.5%), lower than Winthrop (26.8%), UCSB (27.6%) and trendy Georgetown with 12 seeds (42.7 %).
The next big hit for the bracket pool came from No. 13 North Texas, which took down No. 4 Purdue. Only 12.5% of all entries chose the Mean Green to continue, and in nearly half of all brackets (49.7%) the Boilermakers reached the Sweet 16.
The final shock came when Syracuse knocked out No. 6 San Diego State, although Tournament Challenge players weren’t that surprised, as 41.8% of entries chose Syracuse to advance to the second round, the highest percentage of 11 seeds. However, for those opting for San Diego State, the loss really stings, as 23.5% of those braces had the Aztecs hit the Sweet 16.
For 108 participants, the search for perfection continues on Saturday.