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“National Bracket” Picks Kansas, Ohio State, Duke, Pittsburgh in Final Four, Ohio State to Win

Fans submitted a record of more than 5.9 million brackets to ESPN.com’s annual Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Sprint, surpassing last year’s record of nearly 4.8 million brackets by 24 percent.  At the peak period, fans registered 5,180 brackets per minute (86 brackets per second).

The Women’s Tournament Challenge will be accepting entries until the morning of Saturday, March 19.  President Barack Obama fills out his Women’s Tournament bracket in an exclusive ESPN interview on Friday, March 19 at 9 a.m. ET.

The Men’s Tournament Challenge “National Bracket” — reflecting the percentage of people picking each match-up throughout the Men’s Tournament — showed that more fans picked Kansas, Ohio State, Duke and Pittsburgh to reach the Final Four than any other teams.  In those predicted games (Ohio State vs. Duke, Kansas vs. Pittsburgh):

• Ohio State was picked to defeat Duke 19.1 percent of the time;
• Kansas was picked to defeat Pittsburgh 25.3 percent of the time;
• 25.9 percent of participants chose Ohio State to win the national championship.

An analysis of Second Round picks by the 5.9 million brackets finds:

• 57.2% of brackets picked #10 Michigan State to defeat #7 UCLA;
• 53.7% of brackets picked #9 Tennessee to defeat #8 Michigan;
• 46% of brackets picked #10 Florida State to defeat #7 Texas A&M;
• 99.5% of brackets picked #1 Ohio State over #16 University of Texas-San Antonio.

A full round-by-round breakdown of picks can be found under “Who Picked Whom” on ESPN.com, listing the percentage of participants who selected each team to win in each respective round.

At the end of the Tournament, the Men’s Tournament Challenge entrant with the most points wins $10,000.  The runner up will be named in a random drawing for $5,000.  The Women’s Tournament Challenge winner will receive a $2,000 Best Buy Gift Card.  Entries for the Men’s Tournament Challenge game will be accepted until just prior to the tip-off of the Tournament’s first game today.  The Women’s Tournament Challenge will accept registration until just prior to tip-off of the first game on Saturday, March 19.

Fans on the go can get the latest on their brackets with the new ESPN Bracket Bound app for iPhone and Android devices.  The free app allows fans to manage their brackets and follow all the action in real-time, including news, video and a premium layer of exclusive content. ESPN Mobile will also carry complete coverage from writers and analysts, keeping fans up to date on the latest news and highlights on mobile devices via a special section on the ESPN mobile Web.  Additionally, fans can sign up for ESPN Alerts to receive real-time information on the game (scores, starts, etc.), breaking news, upsets and more.

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