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Eleven perfect brackets through Round of 64 in Women’s Tournament Challenge

ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge

Brackets in ESPN.com’s Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by Allstate, Acura and Taco Bell revealed no “perfect” brackets remaining after the second day of competition.  Additionally, only five brackets went 30 for 32 in the Round of 64 and only four brackets missed just one Sweet Sixteen team.  An analysis of more than 8.15 million brackets submitted also reveals:

• Only 1% and 1.3% of all brackets correctly predicted #15 Florida Gulf and #13 LaSalle to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, respectively
• Just 3.3% of all brackets picked #9 Wichita State to reach the Sweet Sixteen, whereas #1 Gonzaga was picked to win the championship in 5.6% of all brackets
• Gonzaga was the only #1 ranked team not chosen in the Final Four of the “National Bracket” (#2 Ohio State was the most popular pick in the West)
• 15.5% and 29.4% of all brackets picked #12 Oregon and #6 Arizona, respectively, to advance to the Sweet Sixteen

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

• West – Just 966 brackets correctly predicted Ohio State, Arizona, Wichita State and LaSalle
• South – Only 8,590 brackets accurately picked Kansas, Michigan, Florida and Florida Gulf
• Midwest – 9.8% of brackets correctly predicted Louisville, Oregon, Michigan State and Duke
• East – 35.5% of brackets accurately picked Indiana, Syracuse, Marquette and Miami

Summarizing “bracket busters” in the Round of 64:

• #15 Florida Gulf vs. #2 Georgetown
  • Only 2.3% of brackets picked Florida Gulf to upset Georgetown
  • Georgetown was picked to advance to the Elite Eight in 49.3% of all brackets and to the Final Four in 23.5%
• #14 Harvard vs. #3 New Mexico
  • Just 5.6% of brackets picked Harvard over New Mexico
  • New Mexico was picked to advance to the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight in 63.9% and 19% of all brackets, respectively
• #13 LaSalle vs. #4 Kansas State
  • Only 6.1% of brackets correctly predicted LaSalle over Kansas State
  • Kansas State was picked to advance to the Round of 32 in 93.9% of all brackets and to the Sweet Sixteen in 36%
• #12 Ole Miss vs. #5 Wisconsin
  • Just 20% of brackets picked Ole Miss over Wisconsin
  • Wisconsin was picked to advance to the Round of 32 in 80% of all brackets and to the Sweet Sixteen in 54.7%

The 8.15 million brackets in Men’s Tournament Challenge this year surpassed last year’s record of 6.45 million brackets by 26.3 percent.  At the peak period, fans registered 8,123 brackets per minute (135 brackets per second). Among them was President Barack Obama, who currently sits in the 72.3rd percentile with a rank of 2,254,697 in the Men’s Tournament.  He was one of 6.1% of brackets that correctly picked LaSalle over Kansas State in the Round of 64.  His Final Four picks heading into the Sweet Sixteen are still in play (Louisville, Ohio State, Florida and Indiana).

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.  Fans can follow all their brackets via Bracketcast, a new tool for Tournament Challenge on ESPN.com that tracks all brackets in one single place.  Located at the bottom of each bracket page, Bracketcast delivers the latest scores and total points in real time throughout the tournament.

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 Baylor, Stanford, Notre Dame and Connecticut to reach the Final Four than any other teams.  After two days of competition, eleven “perfect” brackets remain in Women’s Tournament Challenge on ESPN.com.  An analysis of all brackets submitted reveals:

• 22.3% of brackets predicted #10 Creighton over #7 Syracuse
• 25.4% of brackets had #10 South Florida defeating #7 Texas Tech
• 18.7% of brackets picked #12 Kansas over #5 Colorado
• President Obama went 22 for 32 in the Round of 64 and currently sits in the 8.9th percentile with his Final Four picks still in play (Baylor, California, Notre Dame and Connecticut)

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.

2013 NCAA Basketball Tournament on ESPN Digital Platforms

ESPN.com will have complete round-by-round coverage of the tournament from its line-up of experts and analysts including Eamonn Brennan, Andy Katz, Jason King, Joe Lunardi, Myron Medcalf, Ted Miller, Dana O’Neil, Robbi Pickeral, Rick Reilly, Mike Rothstein and Carter Strickland.  From Selection Sunday through the Final Four, ESPN.com will deliver features, analysis, commentary and more on the teams, players and coaches in the tournament.  Additionally, ESPN.com’s Basketball Power Index (BPI) will be available for fans to reference the latest power rankings by team to assist in their bracket picks.

Additionally, fans won’t be far from checking their brackets while on the go with the 2013 updated ESPN Bracket Bound app, now available on the App Store and Google Play.  The free-to-down app features full access to Tournament Challenge brackets and new personalized “My Teams” and “My Games” sections displaying scores and schedules of favorite teams.  Additionally, the app will once again include video analysis from ESPN’s college basketball experts and analysts, bracketology, exclusive clips, top stories, game previews, recaps, analysis and highlights.

ESPN Mobile will also carry 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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