Forty games into the NCAA Tournament, fans hoping to fill out a perfect bracket were a respectable 2 for 26,587,885.
No. 11 seed Texas all but wiped out the remaining unblemished entries in the annual March Madness contests with its 74-68 upset of No. 3 seed Gonzaga on Saturday night.
After the win by the Longhorns, who started in the First Four, there were 22 perfect entries in ESPN’s bracket challenge and 27 in the NCAA’s contest.
The last three games on Saturday were won by higher-seeded teams, but No. 4 seed Nebraska was hardly a sure thing, having never won an NCAA Tournament game before this week. The Cornhuskers survived fifth-seeded Vanderbilt 74-72, and once Arkansas knocked off High Point, ESPN had two perfect brackets left.
On the NCAA’s official site, there were four.
Favored teams went 16-0 on Friday, and they started 4-0 on Saturday, leaving more than 100 brackets intact. No. 1 seed Duke dominated No. 9 seed TCU in the second half and won 81-58. No. 1 Michigan dispatched No. 9 seed Saint Louis 95-72. No. 2 seed Houston hammered No. 10 seed Texas A&M 88-57. No. 3 Michigan State beat sixth-seeded Louisville 77-69.
Texas sent the remaining perfect brackets down to the double digits with its takedown of the Zags.
There was also a sharp drop-off in perfect brackets in the women’s tournament Saturday. The day started with 675,000 in the ESPN contest. After the conclusion of the first round, there were 1,131 left.
Just three lower seeds won, with No. 10 seed Virginia knocking out No. 7 seed Georgia 82-73, No. 9 seed Southern California beating No. 8 seed Clemson 71-67 and No. 9 seed Syracuse eliminating No. 8 seed Iowa State 72-63. Many more brackets would have been in a shambles had 15th-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson, which was in a one-possession game with No. 2 seed Iowa midway through the fourth quarter, been able to pull an upset. Iowa won 58-48.
The odds of going 63-0 in a bracket contest are somewhere between one in 9.2 quintillion (for totally random guesses) or one in 120 billion (semi-educated ones).
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness