After a year without doing so, March Madness returned Friday with a No. 15 seed, a No. 13 seed, a No. 12 seed and a No. 11 seed as they advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
And with it came the return of “parentheses”: the annual search for a perfect prognosis that inevitably twists and results in the hypothetical – or literal, for some – bracketing of brackets.
There were 14.7 million parentheses entered in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge prior to the start of the NCAA tournament. After just 16 games, only 108 remain flawless.
The first big hit came with Oral Roberts ’impressive No. 15 bother for Ohio State at No. 2, as the huge 13,992,289 brackets (95.2%) pushed the Buckeyes to the second. round. In fact, the Buckeyes were the sixth most-chosen team among ESPN teams to shrink the networks as champions.
For those lucky enough to choose Oral Roberts, many doubled, with 272,122 brackets with the Golden Eagles advancing to the Sweet 16.
The traditional 12- to 5-year-old disorder then happened to the state of Oregon which finished No. 5 in Tennessee. Of all 12 seeds in the ESPN Tournament Challenge, the Beavers were chosen the least (21.5%), below Winthrop (26.8%), UCSB (27.6%) and the Georgetown fashion team (42, 7%).
The next big hit in the parenthesis group was provided by No. 13 in North Texas, which finished No. 4 in Purdue. Only 12.5% of all entries chose Mean Green to advance and almost half of all supports (49.7%) managed to get the boilers to reach the Sweet 16.
The final upset came with Syracuse finishing No. 6 in the state of San Diego, although Tournament Challenge players weren’t too surprised, as 41.8% of registrations chose Syracuse. to advance to the second round, the highest percentage among 11 leagues. However, for those who choose the state of San Diego, the loss is very significant, as 23.5% of these supports have had the Aztecs up to Sweet 16.
For 108 participants, the pursuit of perfection continues on Saturday.