WASHINGTON — Almost everyone’s brackets have already been busted just two games into day one of March Madness.
Duquesne delivered the first big upset of the men’s NCAA Tournament with a stunning 71-67 win against No. 6 BYU on Thursday.
Heading into the tournament, Duquesne was the least-picked No. 11 seed by Men’s Bracket Challenge Game users this year, according to the NCAA’s website.
After just three games, only 11.6 % of brackets remain perfect in that official game.
In the day’s first game, No. 9 Michigan State defeated No. 8 Mississippi State 66-51. Just 57.4% of all brackets remained intact after that game finished, according to the NCAA website.
Following the Duquesne upset, No. 3 seed Creighton secured a win over No. 14 Akron — eliminating even more brackets.
A record 22.6 million brackets were filled out on ESPN’s site, up 15% over last year. UConn is the favorite in the ESPN Tournament Challenge at 24.7%, followed by Houston at 13.6% and Purdue at 10.1%.
According to NCAA.com, if you were to simply guess or flip a coin for each matchup, the odds of a perfect NCAA bracket are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808.
However, NCAA.com also notes that the odds are more like 1 in 120.2 billion, if the person making the bracket takes into account info about which teams are better and tournament history.
It’s believed that the closest anyone has gotten to a perfect bracket occurred just five years ago.
During the 2019 tournament, an Ohio man correctly guessed all the games going into the Sweet 16, according to NCAA.com. But his streak of 49 correct picks was ended when Purdue beat Tennessee 99-94 in overtime of the second game in the Sweet 16.
Last year, it took just 25 games for there to be no more perfect brackets – after No. 16 FDU stunned No. 1 Purdue.
In 2022 and 2021, it took just 28 games for there to be no more perfect brackets.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.