Number of perfect March Madness brackets dwindles to a precious few in Day 2

The odds of a picking perfect NCAA Tournament bracket are astronomical for a reason. The number of unblemished entries in ESPN’s bracket challenge dropped to 423 with four games to play Friday night, thanks in part to ninth-seeded Utah State’s win over eighth-seeded Villanova. Translation: Over 99.

999% of the 26 million-plus brackets entered have already been busted. It was much the same over at the NCAA’s bracket challenge, where error-free entries were at 0. 005% heading into Friday night’s games.

Things were off to a slightly better start for those who gave ESPN’s women’s bracket challenge a shot. More than 1. 1 million perfect brackets remained after Friday’s opening set of games.

Yet even with the higher seeds prevailing in every contest, well over 2 million entries had already fallen by the wayside. Kalshi, a leader in prediction markets — in which users buy and trade shares based on potential event outcomes — is offering $1 billion (yes, that’s billion with a “b”) to anyone who predicts all 63 tournament games correctly, with a “consolation” prize of $1 million to the person who finishes with the top-scoring bracket. The dream of becoming a billionaire was still alive for 83 people when Friday’s games tipped off.