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ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge
Brackets in ESPN.com’s Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Sprint revealed no “perfect” brackets remaining after just the first two days of competition. Through the Second and Third Rounds, only one bracket correctly picked 15 of the Sweet Sixteen teams, including the two #11 teams VCU and Marquette and missing only #4 Kentucky. An analysis of more than 5.9 million brackets submitted also reveals:
- 18,950 (0.3%) brackets had # 10 Florida State vs. #11 VCU in the Sweet Sixteen;
- 272,747 (4.6%) brackets had #8 bracket buster Butler defeating #1 Pittsburgh in the Third Round;
- 319,081 (5.4%) brackets had #11 Marquette defeating #3 Syracuse in the Third Round;
- 267,441 (4.5%) brackets picked #13 Morehead State over #4 Louisville in the Second Round.
Taking a look at picks of teams advancing to the Sweet Sixteen by region:
- 1,044,994 (17.6%) brackets predicted all four teams from the West correct (Duke, San Diego State, Connecticut, Arizona);
- 170,494 (2.9%) brackets correctly picked all four teams from the East (Ohio State, North Carolina, Kentucky, Marquette);
- 38634 (0.7%) brackets had all four teams out of the Southeast correct (Florida, BYU, Wisconsin, Butler);
- 2,811 (less than 0.05%) brackets correctly picked all four teams out of the Southwest (Kansas, Richmond, VCU, Florida State).
The 5.9 million brackets in Men’s Tournament Challenge this year surpassed last year’s record of nearly 4.8 million brackets by 24 percent. At the peak period, fans registered 5,180 brackets per minute (86 brackets per second). Among them was President Barack Obama, who currently sits in the 99.9th percentile with a rank of 7,549 in the Men’s Tournament. However, only 6 of his Elite Eight predictions are remaining, missing on Purdue and Pittsburgh, one of his Final Four picks.
A full round-by-round breakdown of picks can be found under “Who Picked Whom” on ESPN.com, listing the percentage of participants who selected each team to win in each respective round. The Men’s Tournament Challenge entrant with the most points at the end of the Tournament wins $10,000. The runner up will be named in a random drawing for $5,000.
ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge
The ESPN.com Women’s Tournament Challenge “National Bracket” showed more fans picked Connecticut, Tennessee Baylor and Stanford to reach the Final Four than any other teams. In those predicted games (Connecticut vs. Tennessee, Baylor vs. Stanford):
- Connecticut was picked to defeat Tennessee 82.8% of the time;
- Baylor was picked to defeat Stanford 52.1% of the time;
- 51.5% of participants chose Connecticut to win the national championship.
After two days of competition:
- Only 153 brackets picked all 32 First Round games correctly;
- 31.2% of brackets predicted Marist to defeat Iowa State;
- 32.7% of brackets had Gonzaga defeating Iowa;
- 36.3% of brackets chose Temple over Arizona State;
- 38.9% of brackets predicted a St. John’s win over Texas Tech;
- President Obama went 27-5 in the First Round and currently sits in the 76.4th percentile.
For a full round-by-round breakdown of picks, visit the Women’s “Who Picked Whom” page on ESPN.com. The Women’s Tournament Challenge winner will receive a $2,000 Best Buy Gift Card.
2011 NCAA College Basketball Tournament on ESPN.com and ESPN Mobile
Across ESPN.com, ScoreCenter & XL app, Bracket Bound app and the ESPN mobile Web site, ESPN saw an average minute audience of 490,000 people consuming content on one of ESPN’s digital platforms at any given minute of the day from Thursday-Sunday (through the Second and Third Rounds). During that time:
- 6.6 million visits to the College Basketball section on ESPN.com, up 20% compared to the same time period in 2010;
- 470 million total minutes spent on the ESPN mobile Web;
- Over 2 million visits to the ESPN Bracket Bound app on iPhone and Android devices, up 82% in the iPhone version compared to 2010.
ESPN Bracket Bound is a free app that allows fans to manage their brackets and follow all the action in real-time, including news, video and a premium layer of exclusive content. ESPN Mobile also carries complete coverage from writers and analysts, keeping fans up to date on the latest news and highlights on mobile devices via a special section on the ESPN mobile Web. Additionally, fans can sign up for ESPN Alerts to receive real-time information on the game (scores, starts, etc.), breaking news, upsets and more.
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