After NCAA Tournament 1st Round, only 0.1% of 13 million ESPN brackets are perfect

The quest for the perfect NCAA Tournament bracket is similar to that mythical quest for the Holy Grail. People continue to do it even through the possibilities of getting all 67 (or 63 depending on the contest) games are extremely difficult. But that doesn’t stop us because every March, we fill them out again.

Due to unforeseen upsets, the number of perfect brackets decrease and that has happened again in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge. According to ESPN, just 0.1% of 13 million brackets entered in its challenge remain perfect after Day 1:

After a wild 1st day of the tourney, just 14,525 (0.1%) out of the approx 13 mil ESPN Tournament Challenge brackets are a perfect 16/16

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) March 18, 2016

To further explain, ESPN PR maven Josh Krulewitz compares that to last year.:

Day 1: 14,525 (.1%) of 13 mill brackets were perfect 16 for 16 (compared to 273 in 2015); 182,678 had 15 of 16; 7 brackets went 0 for 16

— Josh Krulewitz (@jksports) March 18, 2016

So the number of perfect brackets after Day 1 is actually ahead of this same time last year. So there’s still hope for the 14,525 who still have perfect brackets going into today’s action. But again, that number should go down once the dust settles after another sixteen games are played. Will someone reach that rarified air of achieving perfection with a perfect bracket? We’ll find out, but one thing is for sure, we won’t have 14,525 perfect brackets when Saturday rolls around.