Furman and Princeton landed two of the biggest upsets so far in the 2023 NCAA men's tournament, but how many people actually picked the Paladins and Tigers to advance out of the first round in the March Madness Bracket Challenge Game? Here's the data.
Furman foreseers
A little more than 25 percent of brackets predicted Furman to knock off Virginia in a 13-4 upset. While that number may seem high, only 10.671 percent of the Men's Bracket Challenge Game had perfect brackets after the second game of the day.
PERFECT BRACKET TRACKER: Tracking every perfect bracket
Princeton predictors
More people picked Arizona to win title at 4.73 percent than picked Princeton to defeat Arizona it their first round game at 4.13 percent. Arizona was a popular pick, with celebrities like President Joe Biden picking the Wildcats as their champion. Well, the presidential bracket and more are busted after the Tigers pulled off a 12-point comeback.
The geniuses who picked both
Only 1.89 percent of Men's Bracket Challenge Game entries thought both Furman and Princeton would pull off the shockers. On ESPN, the number was 2.56 percent out of more than 20 million brackets.
However, just because someone picked both Furman and Princeton to advance doesn't mean that their bracket was perfect through seven games. Only 0.124 percent of brackets on the Men's Bracket Challenge Game remained perfect after the Tigers won, while ESPN's perfect list was just .09 percent after eight games.
When it came to upsets, a fan favorite entering Thursday's first round games was Oral Roberts, who had more people pick it to win the title than every seed sixth and below. Maybe all the energy for the Golden Eagles should've gone to the Paladins and Tigers instead.
