Of course, in a contest run by a company, we all hear the disclaimer that a company’s employees are not eligible to win as it would be considered unfair and it would be a conflict of interest. However, it was learned today that ESPN does not allow its employees to take part in any office pools at the Alleged Worldwide Leader’s headquarters. Despite this, ESPN encourages you and I to submit brackets and an estimated 5.9 million were submitted for the network’s Tournament Challenge, which is a lot.
About one-quarter chose Ohio State as the National Champion. We have that and other numerical breakdowns in this press release from ESPN.
Record 5.9 Million Brackets in ESPN.com’s Men’s Tournament Challenge Game
“National Bracket” Picks Kansas, Ohio State, Duke, Pittsburgh in Final Four, Ohio State to Win
Fans submitted a record of more than 5.9 million brackets to ESPN.com’s annual Men’s Tournament Challenge, surpassing last year’s record of nearly 4.8 million brackets by 24 percent. At the peak period, fans registered 5,180 brackets per minute (86 brackets per second).
The Women’s Tournament Challenge will be accepting entries until the morning of Saturday, March 19. President Barack Obama fills out his Women’s Tournament bracket in an exclusive ESPN interview on Friday, March 19 at 9 a.m. ET.
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 Kansas, Ohio State, Duke and Pittsburgh to reach the Final Four than any other teams. In those predicted games (Ohio State vs. Duke, Kansas vs. Pittsburgh):
- Ohio State was picked to defeat Duke 19.1 percent of the time;
- Kansas was picked to defeat Pittsburgh 25.3 percent of the time;
- 25.9 percent of participants chose Ohio State to win the national championship.
An analysis of Second Round picks by the 5.9 million brackets finds:
- 57.2% of brackets picked #10 Michigan State to defeat #7 UCLA;
- 53.7% of brackets picked #9 Tennessee to defeat #8 Michigan;
- 46% of brackets picked #10 Florida State to defeat #7 Texas A&M;
- 99.5% of brackets picked #1 Ohio State over #16 University of Texas-San Antonio.
A full round-by-round breakdown of picks can be found under “Who Picked Whom” on ESPN.com, listing the percentage of participants who selected each team to win in each respective round.
At the end of the Tournament, the Men’s Tournament Challenge entrant with the most points wins $10,000. The runner up will be named in a random drawing for $5,000. The Women’s Tournament Challenge winner will receive a $2,000 Gift Card. Entries for the Men’s Tournament Challenge game will be accepted until just prior to the tip-off of the Tournament’s first game today. The Women’s Tournament Challenge will accept registration until just prior to tip-off of the first game on Saturday, March 19.
That is all.
