No Perfect Brackets Remain in Both Men’s and Women’s Tournament Challenge on ESPN.com

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How fans have fared so far in ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge;

ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge “National Bracket” predicts all no. 1 seeds in Final Four

ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge

Brackets in ESPN.com’s Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Infiniti USA revealed no “perfect” brackets remaining after just the first two days of competition.  Through the Second and Third Rounds, only three brackets correctly picked every Sweet Sixteen team, including the current leader in the game with just six missed picks.  An analysis of more than 6.45 million brackets submitted also reveals:

• 41.3% of brackets picked Wisconsin over Vanderbilt, the least support among no. 4 seeds to reach the Sweet Sixteen;
• Syracuse had the fewest brackets among the top-two seeds to reach the Sweet Sixteen (80.9%);
• Just 3.3% of brackets have NC State in the Elite Eight and 1% in the Final Four;
• 4.2% of brackets picked Ohio to reach the Sweet Sixteen, the best total among the no. 13 seeds, and just 0.2% have them in the Final Four;
• Florida is the most popular no. 7 seed in Tournament Challenge to advance to the Sweet Sixteen (11.9%) and reaching the Final Four (2.4%);
• Cincinnati was picked by 17.5% of brackets to reach the Sweet Sixteen, but busted 26.3% of brackets that chose Florida State to reach the Final Four – more than no. 1 Syracuse and no. 2 seed Duke – and 2.8% that picked the Seminoles to win it all.

Taking a look at picks of teams advancing to the Sweet Sixteen by region:

• 5.5% of brackets predicted all four teams from the East correct (Syracuse, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Cincinnati);
• 4.3% of brackets correctly picked all four teams from the West (Michigan State, Marquette, Louisville, Florida);
• 1.3% of brackets had all four teams out of the South correct (Kentucky, Baylor, Indiana, Xavier);
• 0.7% of brackets correctly picked all four teams out of the Midwest (North Carolina, Kansas, NC State, Ohio).

Summarizing “bracket busters” in the Round of 64:

• 0.38% of brackets picked Lehigh, Norfolk State and Ohio correctly;
• 1.2% picked Norfolk State over Mizzou, knocking the total number of perfect brackets at that time from 1,607 down to two;
• 1.18% picked Lehigh over Duke, yet only 12.9% had Duke reaching the Final Four – the lowest of all no. 2 seeds;
• While 98.8% picked Mizzou and Duke to advance in the Round of 64, they had the least support among no. 2 seeds to reach the Sweet Sixteen;
• 37.2% of brackets picked no. 12 VCU to upset no. 5 Wichita State;
• 23.1% of brackets picked no. 11 Colorado over no. 6 UNLV;
• 11.7% picked no. 13 Ohio over no. 4 Michigan to advance to the Round of 32.

The 6.45 million brackets in Men’s Tournament Challenge this year surpassed last year’s record of 5.9 million brackets by 8.9 percent.  At the peak period, fans registered 6,340 brackets per minute (105 brackets per second). Among them was President Barack Obama, who currently sits in the 98th percentile with a rank of 131,052 in the Men’s Tournament.  He was one of 18.5% of brackets that picked NC State to reach the Sweet Sixteen, but is down a Final Four team when Missouri was upset in the Round of 64 by Norfolk State.

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.  At the end of the Tournament, all Men’s Tournament Challenge entries that finish in the top 1% are entered in a random drawing for the $10,000 Best Buy Gift Card prize.

ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge

The ESPN.com Women’s Tournament Challenge “National Bracket” showed more fans picked Stanford, Baylor Notre Dame and UConn to reach the Final Four than any other teams.  In those predicted games (Stanford vs. Baylor, Notre Dame vs. UConn):

• Baylor was picked to defeat Stanford 84% of the time;
• UConn was picked to defeat Notre Dame 56.7% of the time;
• 55.2% of participants chose Baylor to win the national championship.

After two days of competition, no “perfect” brackets remain in Women’s Tournament Challenge on ESPN.com, and just 53 brackets missed one pick.  An analysis of all brackets submitted reveals:

• Only 9.4% of brackets predicted no. 11 Marist to upset no. 4 Georgia;
• 22.3% of brackets had no. 11 Kansas defeating no. 6 Nebraska;
• 25% of brackets chose no. 11 Gonzaga over no. 6 Rutgers;
• 33% of brackets predicted a no. 9 Florida win over no. 8 Ohio State;
• President Obama went 27-5 in the First Round and currently sits in the 80th percentile.

For a full round-by-round breakdown of picks, visit the Women’s “Who Picked Whom” page on ESPN.com.  Entries that finish in the top 1% are entered in a random drawing for a $5,000 Best Buy Gift Card.

2012 NCAA Basketball Tournament on ESPN Digital Platforms

ESPN.com has complete round-by-round coverage of the tournaments from its line-up of experts and analysts including Edward Aschoff, Brennan, Kevin Gemmell, Andy Katz, Jason King, Lunardi, Myron Medcalf, Dana O’Neil, and Robbi Pickeral.  Additionally, ESPN Insider is offering a number of additional exclusive features during and after the tournament to help break down who gets off the bubble, who is most likely to be this year’s Cinderella and who will be the breakout stars of the tournament.

Additionally, fans won’t be far from checking their brackets while on the go with the 2012 updated ESPN Bracket Bound app available now in the App Store and Android Market.  The free to download app features:

• Nightly video highlights and analysis from ESPN’s college basketball experts;
• Latest news columns and blogs from Katz, Gottlieb, Bilas and others;
• Live game-following experience around the nation plus live events via WatchESPN;
• Aggregated Twitter talent feeds;
• Customizable with favorite teams for easy access to schedules, custom news, video, Twitter and more;
• Bracketology by Lunardi;
• Sign-ups for Tournament Challenge, where fans can join groups, create and manage their brackets and follow all the action in real-time on the go.

ESPN Mobile is carrying 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 new 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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