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“National Bracket” Picks Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio State and North Carolina in Final Four, Kentucky to Win
Fans submitted a record of nearly 6.45 million brackets to ESPN.com’s annual Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Infiniti USA, surpassing last year’s record of nearly 5.9 million brackets by 8.9 percent. At the peak period, fans registered 6,340 brackets per minute (105 brackets per second).
The Women’s Tournament Challenge will be accepting entries until the morning of Saturday, March 17. President Barack Obama fills out his Women’s Tournament bracket in an exclusive ESPN interview with Doris Burke tomorrow 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 Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio State and North Carolina to reach the Final Four than any other teams. In those predicted games (Kentucky vs. Missouri, Ohio State vs. North Carolina):
- Kentucky was picked to defeat Missouri 23.1 percent of the time;
- North Carolina was picked to defeat Ohio State 15 percent of the time;
- 35.1 percent of participants chose Kentucky to win the national championship.
An analysis of Second Round picks by the 6.45 million brackets finds:
- 43.2% of brackets picked #10 Xavier to defeat #7 Notre Dame;
- 71.8% of brackets picked #8 Memphis to defeat #9 Saint Louis;
- 84% of brackets picked #5 Vanderbilt to defeat #12 Harvard;
- 50.4% of brackets picked #11 NC State to defeat #6 SDSU.
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, all Men’s Tournament Challenge entries that finish in the top 1% are entered in a random drawing for the $10,000 Best Buy Gift Card prize. In the Women’s Tournament Challenge, entries that finish in the top 1% are entered in a random drawing for a $5,000 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 on Thursday, March 15. The Women’s Tournament Challenge will accept registration until just prior to tip-off of the first game on Saturday, March 17.
2012 NCAA Basketball Tournament on ESPN Digital Platforms
ESPN.com has complete round-by-round coverage of the tournaments from its line-up of experts and analysts including Edward Aschoff, Brennan, Kevin Gemmell, Andy Katz, Jason King, Lunardi, Myron Medcalf, Dana O’Neil, and Robbi Pickeral. Additionally, ESPN Insider is offering a number of additional exclusive features during and after the tournament to help break down who gets off the bubble, who is most likely to be this year’s Cinderella and who will be the breakout stars of the tournament.
Additionally, fans won’t be far from checking their brackets while on the go with the 2012 updated ESPN Bracket Bound app available now in the App Store and Android Market. The free to download app features:
- Nightly video highlights and analysis from ESPN’s college basketball experts;
- Latest news columns and blogs from Katz, Gottlieb, Bilas and others;
- Live game-following experience around the nation plus live events via WatchESPN;
- Aggregated Twitter talent feeds;
- Customizable with favorite teams for easy access to schedules, custom news, video, Twitter and more;
- Bracketology by Lunardi;
- Sign-ups for Tournament Challenge, where fans can join groups, create and manage their brackets and follow all the action in real-time on the go.
ESPN Mobile is carrying 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 new 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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