The 2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament opened with the first round on March 19, featuring 32 games over two days across multiple venues to reduce the 64-team field to 32.
The NCAA reported on March 20 that roughly 14,000 perfect brackets survived the first 16 games, out of more than 36 million entries tracked across major online platforms via the NCAA Bracket Challenge Game.
A series of upsets contributed to the sharp decline, including No. 12 seed High Point's win over No. 5 Wisconsin, No. 9 TCU's victory over No. 8 Ohio State, Nebraska's first-ever NCAA tournament win over Troy, Louisville's narrow win over USF, VCU's overtime comeback against North Carolina after trailing by 19 points, Saint Louis over Georgia, and Gonzaga over Kennesaw State.
Nebraska entered the tournament with an 0-9 NCAA record, the most appearances without a win among active programs.[1][2]
The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament is a 68-team single-elimination event, with the First Four play-in games preceding the 64-team bracket. First-round games are typically split across Thursday and Friday sessions of 16 games each.[3]
The NCAA Bracket Challenge aggregates public brackets from partners including ESPN, Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports and others. For context, after the first day of the 2023 tournament, 36,668 perfect brackets remained out of over 40 million.[4]
The second round is scheduled for March 21-22, with winners advancing to the Sweet 16.
Sources
- Sports-Reference.com
Nebraska Cornhuskers Men's Basketball
Accessed October 2024
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/nebraska/men/index.html - Wikipedia
Nebraska Cornhuskers men's basketball
Accessed October 2024
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska_Cornhuskers_men%27s_basketball - NCAA.com
2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament (hypothetical stable format)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I_men%27s_basketball_tournament - NCAA.com
NCAA men's bracket challenge 2023: How many perfect brackets remain after Day 1?
March 17, 2023
https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men-d1/article/2023-03-17/ncaa-mens-bracket-challenge-2023-how-many-perfect-brackets-remain
