- Any fan can enter brackets and join groups, starting fresh with the Sweet 16
- Pick remaining 15 games in men’s tournament for chance to win Second Chance Grand Prize
- Final perfect Tournament Challenge bracket busted when No. 3 Purdue beat No. 6 Villanova
Fans can submit Tournament Challenge Second Chance brackets until Thursday, March 28, at 7:00 p.m. ET, before the start of the first Sweet 16 game, No. 4 Florida State vs. No. 1 Gonzaga in the West Regional.
In the meantime, following are a few highlights among the 17.2 million brackets in the ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge heading into the Sweet 16:
- All four No. 1 seeds were picked to make the Sweet 16 in 73.6 percent of entries. All four No. 2 seeds were chosen correctly in 52.8 percent, but there is a significant drop-off for brackets picking the four No. 3 seeds making it that far: 16.8 percent.
- No. 4 Florida St.’s win over No. 12 Murray St. in the West Regional busted many brackets leaning on the underdog, as 13.6 percent of people had the Racers going all the way to the Sweet 16. That was a higher percentage than all No. 7, No. 8, No. 9, No. 10, and No. 11 seeds, including No. 7 Wofford and No. 10 Florida, who also fell on Saturday.
- One No. 12 seed delivering for upset-minded fans in the South Regional was Oregon, with 18.3 percent of brackets pushing them to the Sweet 16 and 15.9 percent predicting the Ducks would face No. 1 Virginia. 85 percent of those brackets picked Virginia to beat Oregon, while 3.6 percent of brackets have Oregon making it to the Elite Eight.
- The Sweet 16 matchup between No. 2 Michigan St. and No. 3 LSU in the East was predicted by 50.2 percent of brackets, with 74.4 percent choosing the Spartans to take down the Tigers.
- In the West, 50.7 percent of brackets pegged the Sweet 16 matchup of No. 1 Gonzaga vs. No. 4 Florida St. Of those brackets, 72.5 percent predict Gonzaga will reach the Elite Eight.
- Among the most disappointed fans are those who picked one of two No. 6 seeds to reach the Sweet 16. Nearly a quarter of all brackets (24.5 percent) had Maryland winning their two games in the East and 39.3 percent had Villanova doing the same in the South, but both lost in the second round to No. 3 seeds LSU and Purdue, respectively.
- Villanova’s loss to Purdue in the 39th game of the tournament resulted in the elimination of the single remaining perfect bracket among the 17.2 million in the Men’s Tournament Challenge.
Percentages of brackets picking the Sweet 16 teams to advance to the Elite Eight:
- No. 1 Duke: 86.3 percent
- No. 1 North Carolina: 77.5 percent
- No. 1 Virginia: 74.6 percent
- No. 1 Gonzaga: 64.3 percent
- No. 2 Michigan St.: 66.1 percent
- No. 2 Kentucky: 62.1 percent
- No. 2 Tennessee: 58.1 percent
- No. 2 Michigan: 54.7 percent
- No. 3 Houston: 58.7 percent
- No. 3 Texas Tech: 25.9 percent
- No. 3 LSU: 18.1 percent
- No. 3 Purdue: 17.7 percent
- No. 4 Florida St.: 19.2 percent
- No. 4 Virginia Tech: 7.3 percent
- No. 5 Auburn: 8.5 percent
- No. 12 Oregon: 3.6 percent
About ESPN Tournament Challenge
The 22nd edition of ESPN’s Tournament Challenge game allows fans to compete with friends, family and others by predicting the winner of each tournament game from the Round of 64 through the Championship Game. As with all ESPN Fantasy games, Tournament Challenge is free to play, and fans can submit up to 25 brackets and join up to 10 groups each for the men’s and women’s tournaments at ESPN.com/bracket or the ESPN Tournament Challenge App for iOS and Android.
During the tournament, the ESPN Tournament Challenge App’s bracket cards allow fans to easily navigate between multiple brackets and sort them by total points, maximum points or alphabetically. The TC App also gives fans advanced live scoring and bracket results through Bracketcast, expert analysis and matchup previews, and opt-in push notifications for up-to-the-second scores, news and video updates.
Tournament Coverage on ESPN.com, ESPN App and ESPN+ – In addition to all the data, information and tools available in the ESPN Tournament Challenge game, ESPN.com and the ESPN App provide comprehensive coverage of the men’s and women’s tournaments including scores, news, analysis and feature stories. In addition, ESPN+ subscribers have access to exclusive in-depth analysis and insights from college basketball writers on ESPN.com and the ESPN App, as well as special shows and content on ESPN+ throughout the three weeks of the men’s tournament.
ESPN Tournament Challenge Prizes – At the end of the tournament, all Men’s Tournament Challenge entries finishing in the top 1 percent based on overall points will be entered in a random drawing to win a trip for two to the 2019 Maui Jim Maui Invitational and $10,000 in Amazon.com Gift Cards. In the Women’s Tournament Challenge, entries finishing in the top 1 percent will be entered in a random drawing for $5,000 in Amazon Gift Cards. Tournament Challenge Second Chance entries finishing in the top 1 percent also will be entered in a random drawing to win a grand prize of $5,000 in Amazon Gift Cards. The Second Change Challenge will accept registration until just prior to tip-off of the first Sweet 16 game on Thursday.
Additionally, 100 fans who join one of the top three Tournament Challenge groups, based on the highest group average at the end of the Men’s Tournament Challenge, will be randomly selected to receive a 12-month subscription to ESPN+. Fans can also test their skills using the ESPN Streak game to pick all the NCAA tournament games and more, while competing for $35,000 in guaranteed prizes each month.
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