March Madness: Perfect brackets could remain intact through the second round

By Mark Anderson, Associated Press

Monday, March 25, 2024 | 12:28 p.m.

The number of perfect brackets for the women's NCAA Tournament dwindled to nearly zero on Sunday, but there's a chance some will remain intact on the ESPN and CBS sites after the second round concludes Monday.

And, for certain, the 16 winless brackets in the ESPN Tournament Challenge will stay that way the rest of the tournament.

Only 14 perfect ESPN brackets out of 3.25 million remain after Sunday's second-round play.

Second-seeded Ohio State's exit early Sunday caused the most damage, causing 1,283 perfect brackets to drop to 154. Seventh-seeded Duke rallied from 16 points down to defeat the Buckeyes 75-63.

Just .0003% were perfect on CBS' site through Sunday. CBS does not release totals.

Sheldon Jacobson, who runs the Bracketodds website, said going with chalk in the women’s bracket was more effective than on that men’s side.

That is the way the first round played out over the first two days. Higher seeds were 31-1, with No. 6 Louisville's 71-69 loss to No. 11 Middle Tennessee on Friday the one exception. The Cardinals' loss was responsible for 1.58 million brackets taking their first defeat — the highest of the first round.

“At the end of the day, you know a lot of the No. 1s are going to be in the Final Four,” Jacobson said. “Occasionally, you’ll get a two or a three, but it just doesn’t happen very often. The men’s game is far more unpredictable. We can get high-scoring brackets in the women’s game, but so can everybody else.”

South Carolina is the favorite among brackets submitted to the CBS site, but many also believe in Caitlin Clark and Iowa. The Gamecocks were chosen on 41.5% of CBS ballots to win the NCAA Tournament, followed by Iowa at 29.6%.

Then there is a serious drop-off, with USC next at 4.2%. Last year’s champion, LSU, is on 3.2% of ballots.