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After a wild first day of the 2016 NCAA tournament, just 14,525 -- or 0.1 percent -- out of the approximately 13 million Tournament Challenge brackets were a perfect 16-for-16 on Thursday. In comparison to previous years: 2015: 273 out of 11.57 million were a perfect 16-for-16 on the first Thursday (0.002 percent). 2014: 18,471 out of approximately 11 million were a perfect 16-for-16 on the first Thursday (0.2 percent).
Another 182,678 brackets went 15-for-16 on Thursday. On the other end of the spectrum, seven brackets laid an egg, going 0-for-16. The twin upsets by 12-seeds Yale and Arkansas-Little Rock over Baylor and Purdue, respectively, really shook up the field. Plus, a pair of upsets by 11-seeds -- Gonzaga over Seton Hall and Wichita State over Arizona -- heightened the bracket-busting madness. Overall, the better seeds went 9-7 on Thursday. President Obama's bracket
He correctly picked all three of the 9-seed upsets, though he missed on the two 11-seed upsets and the two 12-seed upsets. Overall, he was 12-for-16. Fun facts
Conferences off to fast, slow starts: The ACC went 4-0 while the Pac-12 went 1-3 (all losses were upsets seed-wise). States with multiple teams in action Thursday: Connecticut teams (UConn, Yale) went 2-0; Kansas teams (KU, Wichita State) went 2-0; North Carolina teams (UNC, Duke, UNC-Wilmington) went 2-1, with Duke and Wilmington playing each other; Indiana teams (Indiana, Butler, Purdue) went 2-1; Virginia teams (UVa, Hampton) went 1-1 as they played each other; Florida teams (Miami, Florida Gulf Coast) went 1-1; California teams (USC, Fresno State) went 0-2; Texas teams (Baylor, Texas Tech) went 0-2; Tennessee teams (Chattanooga, Austin Peay) went 0-2; New York teams (Buffalo, Iona, Stony Brook) went 0-3.
Looking ahead to Friday's games
With the 12-, 11- and 9-seeds coming out strong Thursday (seven wins), here’s how their fellow seeds are positioned for Friday: 12-seed South Dakota State takes on 5-seed Maryland (South Dakota State picked in 15 percent of brackets). 11-seed Northern Iowa takes on 6-seed Texas (32.4 percent of brackets are taking Northern Iowa); 11-seed Michigan takes on 6-seed Notre Dame (UM getting 24 percent of the picks). The last remaining 9-seed, Cincinnati, takes on 8-seed Saint Joe’s (53.7 percent are taking the Bearcats). The last time the No. 9 seeds won more than two meetings versus No. 8 seeds in a single tournament was in 2007; on Friday, they go for a 4-0 sweep. The second- and fourth-most popular picks to win it all (Michigan State and Oklahoma, respectively) play their round-of-64 games.
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