Each year as college basketball brackets get busted across the nation, there is always one question fans are dying to know. How many perfect brackets left?
As you’re likely familiar with, millions of NCAA brackets are filled out for March Madness every year, but only a few will remain alive after Round 1 of the basketball tournament.
Anyone who has ever filled out a tournament bracket knows how crazy things can get with the passing of each game. If you’re curious, according to the NCAA, people have a 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 chance to fill out a perfect bracket for March Madness. So don’t feel bad when your bracket busts on the first day. It’s much more common than you think.
Related: Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Rankings 2024
How many perfect brackets left?
Those seeking a perfect bracket got off to a rough start on the first day of the 2024 men’s tournament when No. 9 Michigan State toppled No. 8 Mississippi State 69-51, busting 42.6% of brackets. But that was just the start.
Later in the afternoon, 11th-ranked Duquesne upset 6th-ranked BYU 71-67, leaving only 13.8% of perfect brackets in existence, or that are trackable online anyway.
Who could possibly still have a perfect bracket left? While Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson had a perfect bracket heading into Friday afternoon, Marquette’s loss ended the fun.
Now after (12) James Madison defeated (5) Wisconsin, there are zero perfect brackets remaining, two days into the NCAA Tournament. Not a single bracket survived into the 2nd Round of March Madness.
NCAA men’s brackets were quickly busted in 2023 too
Players quickly saw their odds of coming away with a perfect bracket dashed in 2023 too. The 13th-seeded Furman Paladins pulled off an epic late-game win over a heavily favored Virginia Cavaliers squad in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. As such, only 10.7% of the brackets filled out were still perfect.
Later, the 15th-seeded Princeton Tigers pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Tournament history by defeating the Arizona Wildcats. According to the official March Madness site, this left only 0.12% of brackets that remain perfect.
Was there a perfect bracket in 2022? No. March Madness 2022 was no different, and it wasn’t even close.
Out of the 17,357,589 brackets filled out via the ESPN Tournament Challenge, not a single one survived past the second round.
Once (5) Iowa lost to (12) Richmond in the first round, there were already a lot of busted brackets. Through ESPN’s Tournament Challenge alone, 10.3% of those who filled out a bracket had Iowa in their Final Four.
Then after (15) Saint Peter’s knocked off (2) Kentucky in OT, all hell broke loose, leaving a lot of competitors with broken brackets. Of those 17 million brackets filled out on ESPN, only 3.04% of users had a crystal ball or at least used it to pick Saint Peter’s. We’ll report back with more numbers once they’re available or if any more Biff Tannens show up from the future with funny-looking clothing.
Related: College basketball games today: NCAA Tournament schedule
How many broken brackets in 2019?
Just how often are brackets busted this early? For that, we look back on previous seasons to get an idea of just how rare it is to have a perfect bracket even through just the first round.
In 2019 for example, there were just 10 perfect brackets remaining before the second round of the NCAA basketball tournament even began. In the 2019 ESPN Tournament Challenge, there were even fewer, with only nine flawless basketball tournament brackets after the initial round of March Madness in 2019.
How many perfect brackets have there been in NCAA history? Zero. Out of the billions of brackets filled out in the entirety of bracketology, not a single one has been filled out correctly.
We’ll have to wait and find out how many perfect brackets are left after the first round next season.