Are there any perfect brackets left? Tracking the best remaining March Madness brackets in 2026
Here's how many brackets remain perfect after the first day of the NCAA Tournament.
Are there any perfect brackets left? Tracking the best remaining March Madness brackets in 2026 originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
Sarcastically or not, “This year, I’ll have a perfect bracket” is a line heard plenty of times among college basketball fans. That claim usually proves false within hours of the NCAA Tournament tipping off. The same held true in 2026, when over 96 percent of perfect brackets were busted on day one.
Notable upsets—including No. 12 High Point’s stunning comeback over No. 5 Wisconsin—were the primary culprits of the opening afternoon.
In that 83–82 thriller, the Panthers erased an eight-point deficit in the final seven minutes, capped by Chase Johnston’s fast-break layup with 11. 7 seconds remaining. The result was a catastrophic blow to millions of fans who had counted on the Badgers to advance, as an estimated 83 percent of entries across major platforms had Wisconsin moving on to the second round.