There has been a storm of upsets in this year’s NCAA Men’s Tournament, and unfortunately for BYU fans, the Cougars were one of them.
But BYU fans weren’t the only ones sad about Thursday’s loss. The Cougars’ game against the Duquesne Dukes ruined about 9 million dreams of perfect brackets this year, according to ESPN’s Perfect Bracket Tracker page.
Upsets galore
“Oh how the mighty have fallen …”
That’s what the subheading of the Perfect Bracket Killers section on ESPN’s Perfect Bracket Tracker page says.
Because as of 7 p.m. MDT Friday, there have been some doozy upsets in the NCAA Tournament:
- No. 3 Kentucky fell to No. 14 Oakland.
- No. 4 Auburn lost to No. 13 Yale.
- Three out of four of the No. 6 seeds are out (BYU being one of them).
- No. 7 Florida lost to No. 10 Colorado.
- And three out of four No. 8s lost, too (Utah State is the last one standing. That Aggies play late Friday night.)
Upsets are one of the greatest parts of March Madness. Any team can win at any time. Even No. 1 seeds aren’t safe anymore.
But upsets are bad for brackets. Most don’t make it out of the first day unblemished.
In the NCAA Tournament, your bracket can get busted by just about any game. But when it comes to busting brackets, not all upsets are created equal. Some, especially early ones, have more of an effect than others.
So who had the worst perfect-bracket-killing upset loss in this tournament? The BYU Cougars.
BYU loss busts more than 9 million brackets
BYU came into the NCAA tournament as a No. 6 seed and played No. 11 seed Duquesne out of Pennsylvania.
After a bloody, physical 40 minutes of basketball during which BYU just couldn’t quite figure it out, the Dukes stunned the Cougars 71-67 and sent them packing back to Provo.
That sent wave of destruction through bracket-land. With an early game and a high seed, there were a lot of people counting on BYU to win.
On ESPN’s list of perfect bracket killers, BYU’s loss ranks number one. It busted 9,352,804 brackets.
That’s just over 50,000 more than the second biggest bracket killer, No. 9 Michigan State’s upset of No. 8 Mississippi State (9,298,156), and more than 8 million more than the third biggest killer, No. 6 South Carolina’s loss to No. 11 Oregon (1,131,625).
Silver lining: misery loves company
BYU’s upset loss was a tough one to swallow for player and fans alike, and the team and the coaching staff have some questions to answer about where to go next year. But there is a bit of silver lining in the loss this year: Cougar fans aren’t alone in their sadness.
Those 9,352,804 brackets that BYU’s loss busted means that millions of people were in the same boat as BYU fans: They were sad about a Cougar loss.