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How fans have fared through to the Final Four in ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge, Elite Eight in ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge

ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge

Brackets in ESPN.com’s Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Sprint revealed only 2 brackets correctly picked Kentucky, Connecticut, VCU and Butler in the Final Four.  Of those two brackets, one predicted Kentucky vs. VCU in the Championship Game with VCU to win while the other chose Kentucky vs. Butler with Kentucky to win.

On the contrary, 70.3% of all brackets had NONE of the four teams correct.  An analysis of more than 5.9 million brackets submitted also reveals:

• Only 409,277 (6.9%) brackets picked the Final Four teams to advance after the Second Round;
• 36,732 (0.6%) brackets selected Butler to advance to the Final Four;
• Of only 13,006 (0.2%) brackets predicting a Kansas vs. VCU match-up in the Elite Eight, only 1,998 (0.03%) predicted VCU to defeat Kansas;
• 112,489 (1.9%) brackets predicted a Kentucky vs. Connecticut match-up in the Final Four;

A snapshot of Championship Game predictions and winner outcomes shows:

• Connecticut favored to win in 279,308 (4.7%) brackets, the fifth most popular choice out of 64 teams;
• 107,249 (1.8%) brackets named Kentucky as the National Champions, the ninth most popular choice;
• 4,325 (0.07%) brackets picked Butler to win it all, the 31st most popular pick;
• 1,023 (0.02%) brackets chose VCU, the 56th most selected team to win it all, as champions.

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, whose was one of many that had none of the Final Four teams in his bracket, but still currently sits in the 94.9th percentile with a rank of 305,047 in the Men’s Tournament.  His bracket was one of more than 1.4 million (23.7%) brackets that also predicted Kansas to win the title.

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

Only 2.9% of brackets in the ESPN.com’s Women’s Tournament Challenge chose #11 bracket buster Gonzaga advancing to the Elite Eight, defeating #6 Iowa, #3 UCLA and #7 Louisville.  The remaining Elite Eight teams represent the favored #1 and #2 seeds.  An analysis of the women’s brackets reveals:

• 89.6% of brackets predicted Connecticut to advance to the Final Four, and is the heavy favorite to win the Championship Game in 51.5% of brackets;
• 0.5% of brackets selected Gonzaga to continue their run and advance to the Final Four, with 0.1% of brackets predicting them to win the title;
• Notre Dame is the most popular #2 seed pick to defeat a #1 team, Tennessee, with 22% of brackets predicting their Final Four appearance;
• Through the Sweet Sixteen, President Obama currently sits in the 92.2nd 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 54,000 people consuming college basketball content alone on one of ESPN’s digital platforms at any given minute of the day from Thursday-Sunday (through the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight).  A total of 29.3 million visits of college basketball content from Thursday-Sunday were generated, up 36% compared to the same days in 2010.  Additionally:

• ESPN.com logged 3 million visits to the College Basketball section, up 24% compared to the same time period in 2010;
• Average visits to the Tournament Challenge section on ESPN.com was up 39%;
• 9.5 million visits to the College Basketball section on the ESPN mobile Web;
• Visits to the ESPN Bracket Bound app on iPhone device alone were up 128%.

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.