March Madness fans faced a major blow as nearly 36 million brackets were busted on Thursday following early upsets in the first round. The NCAA reported that only 14,000 perfect brackets remained after the first 16 games of the men’s tournament.
The biggest upset came when No. 9 seed TCU defeated No. 8 seed Ohio State, reducing perfect brackets to 14.5 million. Nebraska’s shocking win over Troy eliminated another 2.5 million. High Point’s 83-82 victory over No. 5 Wisconsin as a No. 12 seed further cut the number to 2.3 million. Louisville’s win over USF dropped it to 1.1 million. By the end of the day, only 14,000 brackets remained intact.