How Fans Have Fared in ESPN.com's Men's Tournament Challenge

How's Your Bracket? Redux

March 24, 2008 -- With a host of early round upsets and Cinderella runs in this year’s men’s college basketball championship tournament, millions of brackets in ESPN.com’s 13th annual Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by State Farm and Sprint were left in turmoil heading into the round of 16. An analysis of the more than 3.65 million entries submitted reveals:

* 2 picked all 16 of the Sweet 16 teams correctly;
* 4,621 picked Davidson, Villanova, and Western Kentucky to advance to the Sweet 16;
* 72 picked 15 of the 16 Sweet 16 teams correctly;
* 294,060 picked Davidson to defeat Georgetown in the Second Round;
* 2,091,856 picked Xavier to defeat Duke in the Second Round;
* 544,753 incorrectly picked Butler to defeat Tennessee in the Second Round;
* 1,950,119 incorrectly picked Connecticut to advance to the Sweet Sixteen;
* 189,492 have picked Xavier to defeat West Virginia in the Sweet Sixteen;
* 25,331 have picked Villanova to defeat Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen;
* 159,423 have picked Michigan State to defeat Memphis in the Sweet Sixteen;
* 420,746 have picked Texas to advance to the Championship Game;
* 4,703 have picked Davidson to advance to the Championship Game;
* 50 picked Davidson to defeat Western Kentucky in the Championship Game;
* 3,159 have picked Villanova to advance to the Championship Game;
* 1,548 picked Western Kentucky to advance to the Championship Game;
* 64,813 have picked Washington State to defeat North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen;
* 233 have picked Davidson to defeat UCLA in the Championship Game;
* 16 have picked Western Kentucky to defeat Villanova in the Championship Game.

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 North Carolina, Kansas, Memphis and UCLA to reach the Final Four than any other teams. In those predicted games (North Carolina vs. Kansas, Memphis vs. UCLA):

o North Carolina was picked to defeat Kansas 67.7% of the time;
o UCLA was picked to defeat Memphis 61.8% of the time;
o Fans picked North Carolina to defeat UCLA in the national championship game 64.4% of the time.

See the full ESPN.com National Bracket at: games.espn.go.com/tcmen/nationalBracket.

Both the Men’s and Women’s Tournament Challenge games are free to users and ask entrants to choose the winners of each game in the Division I Men’s and Women’s college basketball tournaments by submitting a bracket prognostication. Participants are awarded points for each correctly picked game, and the entrant with the most points at the end of the Tournament is the Grand Prize Winner.

More about the ESPN.com Men’s Tournament Challenge and ESPN.com’s coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at: games.espn.com/tcmen

Source: ESPN

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