“National Bracket” Agrees with President Obama, Picks Kansas as Champs;
Fans Pick Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse in Final Four 

To tweet this release – http://bit.ly/coQIJh

Fans submitted nearly 5.4 million entries to ESPN.com’s annual Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Sprint, surpassing last year’s record of 5.0 million entries by 8 percent.  At the peak period, fans registered nearly 4,000 entries per minute (nearly 70 entries per second). 

The Women’s Tournament Challenge presented by Capital One will be accepting entries until tip-off of the first game on Saturday, March 20.  President Barack Obama fills out his Women’s Tournament bracket in an exclusive ESPN interview on Friday, March 19 at 9 a.m. ET. 

The Men’s Tournament Challenge “National Bracket” — reflecting the percentage of people picking each match-up throughout the Men’s Tournament — showed that more fans picked Kansas, Kentucky, Duke and Syracuse to reach the Final Four than any other teams.  In those predicted games (Kansas vs. Syracuse, Kentucky vs. Duke): 

• Kansas was picked to defeat Syracuse 76.4 percent of the time;
• Kentucky was picked to defeat Duke 73.2 percent of the time;  
• Fans picked Kansas to defeat Kentucky in the national championship game 65.9 percent of the time.    

Fans could also submit (and can follow) their ESPN Tournament Challenge entries via ESPN’s industry-leading mobile Web site, ESPN MVP on Verizon Wireless and the all new ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge app for iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices. 

An analysis of 1st round picks by the 5.4 million entries finds:  

• 74.4% of entries picked Marquette to defeat Washington;
• 70.6% of entries picked Purdue to defeat Siena;
• 51.2% of entries picked Oklahoma St. to defeat Ga. Tech.;
• 54.3% of entries picked Xavier to defeat Minnesota;
• 0.06% of entries picked Leigh to defeat top-seeded Kansas; 

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, the Men’s Tournament Challenge entrant with the most points wins $10,000. The runner up wins $5,000. The Women’s Tournament Challenge winner will receive 3,000 ESPN Winner’s Circle points, which are redeemable for prizes on the ESPN Winner’s Circle website.  Entries for the Men’s Tournament Challenge game will be accepted until just prior to the tip-off of the Tournament’s first game on Thursday, March 18th.  The Women’s Tournament Challenge will accept registration until just prior to tip-off of the first game on Saturday, March 20th. 

-30-