One Game Busted Half of All NCAA Brackets

Day one of the NCAA tournament busted a lot of brackets. Only about 14,000 flawless entries remain out of more than 36 million submitted across major platforms, reports Forbes, citing NCAA stats. The carnage started immediately: Over half of all brackets died with the opening game, when No. 9 TCU slipped past No. 8 Ohio State. Upsets by No. 12 High Point over No. 5 Wisconsin, No. 11 VCU over No. 6 North Carolina, No. 10 Texas A&M over No. 7 Saint Mary's, and No. 11 Texas over No. 6 BYU kept trimming the herd.

It could have been worse: Top-seeded Duke trailed No. 16 Sienna by 11 points at the half but came back to win, avoiding what would have been one of the biggest upsets in tournament history, per the Athletic. For the record, nobody has ever filled out a perfect bracket by nailing all 63 games, though prediction market Kalshi is dangling $1 billion if someone does this year.