Thursday’s NCAA tournament games were filled with upsets, leading to the shattering of most brackets before the sun went down. From No. 13 seed Furman beating fourth-seeded Virginia to No. 15 Princeton defeating second-seeded Arizona, the first day of March Madness lived up to its name.
According to the NCAA March Madness Twitter account, only 787 brackets remained perfect out of millions after Thursday’s late games concluded. ESPN’s Tournament Challenge bracket game had similar numbers, with only 658 perfect brackets remaining by the end of the first day. More than 20 million entries had already gotten at least one of the 16 games wrong.
Furman and Princeton received varying amounts of support in the bracket challenge. The Paladins were chosen to win their opener in 18.2% of ESPN’s brackets, while only 6.6% picked Princeton to beat Arizona. Arizona’s defeat did tremendous damage to many brackets, as they were chosen in 4.9% of brackets to cut down the nets at the national championship game.
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CBS Sports also had high hopes for Arizona, with 96.9% of brackets predicting a win in their opener, 84.9% predicting they would make the Sweet 16, 55.2% predicting they would make the Elite Eight, 21.5% predicting they would reach the Final Four, and 5% predicting they would win it all.
The first day of March Madness proved to be full of surprises, leaving only a lucky few with perfect brackets heading into the second day of games.
