Sat Mar 22 18:00:00 UTC 2025: **March Madness: Perfect Brackets Dwindle to a Mere Handful**
**Indianapolis, IN** – The odds of predicting the outcome of the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament are astronomically low, and this year is proving no exception. With over 34 million brackets submitted, only around 1,600 remained perfect by Friday afternoon of the tournament’s second day.
Early upsets, including McNeese State’s victory over Clemson and Drake’s win over Missouri, decimated the number of perfect brackets. The first game alone eliminated over half of the entries. While some upsets, such as Baylor’s win over Mississippi State, further reduced the number of perfect brackets, several thousand participants have managed to hang on.
The NCAA estimates the odds of a perfect bracket at one in 9.22 quintillion by chance, dropping to one in 120.2 billion with basketball knowledge. Despite the daunting odds, substantial prizes are on offer, including a trip to Mars from X (formerly Twitter), $1 million from USA Today Sports, and various other rewards from ESPN and the NCAA.
No one has ever achieved a perfect bracket. The closest anyone came was in 2019 when a participant correctly predicted 49 out of 63 games. This year, Duke University is considered the favorite to win the tournament. The dwindling number of perfect brackets suggests this year may be no different.
First Piper 