Cbssports Bracketology (2024)

FAQs

How many brackets were made this year? ›

This year, more than 22 million NCAA Men's Tournament brackets were made on ESPN.

Has anyone had a perfect bracket? No, but a neurologist from Columbus, Ohio, named Gregg Nigl had the verified bracket closest to perfection.

ESPN's TC Men's Second Chance sponsored by Chick-fil-A, and for the first time this year, TC Women's Second Chance sponsored by Invesco, give fans a fresh start and an opportunity to win $50,000 in prizes by choosing the winners of the final 15 games in each tournament.

And, in the process, the Aggies busted the final perfect bracket. As the 2024 men's NCAA Tournament enters the second round on Saturday, there are no more perfect brackets remaining among major online platforms (NCAA, ESPN, CBS and Yahoo), according to the NCAA.

2024. The final perfect men's bracket almost made it through the first round, but No. 8 Utah State's win against No. 9 TCU busted the last standing bracket on the 31st game of the tournament.

16 seeds since the NCAA tournament expanded its field in 1985. UMBC became the first 16 seed ever to upset a No. 1 seed in 2018, when the Retrievers defeated Virginia and became an overnight sensation. In 2023, FDU became just the second 16 seed to knock off a No.

The last perfect bracket has gone 48-0 to kick off the women's NCAA tournament. The lone perfect bracket has made it through to the Sweet 16. A single Yahoo bracket has picked every single game through the second round of the women's NCAA tournament, bringing their record to 48-0 so far.

Virtually all bracket pools disregard these games and only have players pick from the first round, when 64 teams remain. Therefore, there are 63 games in a normal NCAA tournament bracket. As such, the number of possible outcomes for a bracket is 2^63, or 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. That's 9.2 quintillion.

There has been an undefeated champion ten times in women's NCAA Tournament history. The feat has been accomplished by four different programs: Baylor, Tennessee, Texas and UConn. The 1985-86 Longhorns were the first to pull it off.

What college has won the most NCAA Tournament? ›

UCLA has won the most championships in the history of men's college basketball, with 11 wins since 1939.

There has never been a perfect bracket that correctly guessed the outcome of all 63 games in the tournament, despite millions and millions of brackets submitted each year. That fact, however, won't discourage millions and millions of more participants from trying to hit a slam dunk this year.

Compete against friends, ESPN personalities and celebrities to see who finishes with the best bracket and hoops-bragging glory. It's FREE to play with $125,000 in prizes available to win, plus an additional $50,000 for Men's Second Chance! Fill out 25 brackets to be eligible to win special prizes!

This year's ESPN Men's Tournament Challenge collected 22.6 million completed brackets before the start of the tournament today, the most ever for the No. 1 most popular college basketball bracket game, up 13% compared to last year's all-time high.

22.6 Million Brackets: ESPN Tournament Challenge Sets New All-time Record - ESPN Press Room U.S.

According to the American Gaming Association, as many as 100 million March Madness brackets are filled out yearly. That's one bracket for about 30% of the population.

This year's tracking on the women's side involved more than four million brackets.

Various approaches have been taken to estimate the chance of predicting a perfect bracket. There are 2⁶³ or 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 unique combinations of winners in a 64-team bracket, meaning that without considering seed number, the odds of picking a perfect bracket are about 9.22 quintillion to 1.