The first day of the men’s tournament did not disappoint.
We saw three upsets — as many as we saw in the entire first round last season — as the 36 million-plus brackets submitted across major online games (Men’s Bracket Challenge Game, ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, USA Today and Sports Illustrated) turned into more than 14,000 perfect brackets after 16 games.
The biggest dent (by total numbers) happened in the first game when No. 9 TCU took down No. 8 Ohio State, 66-64, leaving 14.5 million perfect brackets. About 2.5 million more perfect brackets were eliminated when No. 4 Nebraska took down No. 13 Troy, 76-47.
The first upset of the day, No. 12 High Point’s 83-82 win over No. 5 Wisconsin, did major damage to bring the total to around 2.3 million perfect brackets. It was then cut to 1.2 million when No. 6 Louisville hung on to beat. No. 11 USF, 83-79.
No. 1 Duke avoided what could have been arguably the biggest upset in tournament history, holding on to beat No. 16 Siena, 71-65. Wins from No. 5 Vanderbilt, No. 4 Arkansas and No. 3 Michigan State left more than 700,000 perfect brackets.
That’s when No. 11 VCU pulled off the largest first round comeback in NCAA tournament history, taking down No. 6 North Carolina 82-78 in overtime. After the Rams’ win, a little over 300,000 perfect brackets remained.
That total was halved once again to about 150,000 when No. 10 Texas A&M took down No. 7 Saint Mary’s, 73-50. Shortly after, No. 11 Texas took down No. 6 BYU, 79-71, leaving a little over 30,000 perfect brackets.
The last big hit of the night came when No. 9 Saint Louis dominated No. 8 Georgia, 102-77, leaving fewer than 15,000 brackets still perfect. After No. 3 Gonzaga’s 73-64 win over No. 14 Kennesaw State, just over 14,000 — or about 0.039% of all brackets — remained unscathed.
This total is significantly lower after the first day last year, but more than in other recent years. Here’s how many perfect brackets we had heading into the second day in previous years:
2025: 36,000+
2024: 2,100+
2023: 787
2022: 192
2021: 121
2019: About 60,000
