March Madness: Day‑1 chaos
Opening day blew up millions of brackets — No.12 High Point stunned No.5 Wisconsin 83–82 and a string of other upsets left bracket pools reeling. Nearly 36 million brackets were busted on day one as March Madness delivered classic first‑round volatility ( ).
Chase Johnston’s go‑ahead fast‑break layup with 11.7 seconds left delivered a 83–82 victory for No. 12 High Point over No. 5 Wisconsin in Portland on March 19, 2026. (msn.com)) Johnston finished with 14 points and four 3‑pointers, High Point entered the tournament 31‑4, and Wisconsin came in 24‑11, according to official box scores and the AP recap. (espn.com)) No. 11 VCU erased a 19‑point deficit to beat No. 6 North Carolina 82–78 in overtime, with Terrence Hill Jr. scoring a career‑high 34 points in the rally. (espn.com)) In Portland, No. 11 Texas knocked off No. 6 BYU 79–71 as Matas Vokietaitis posted 23 points and 16 rebounds despite AJ Dybantsa’s 35 points for BYU. (sportsnet.ca)) Major bracket trackers show the first day shredded roughly 36 million entries and left about 14,000 perfect brackets after the March 19 games, per aggregate reporting and the NCAA’s tracker. (msn.com)) Platform tallies diverged: ESPN’s Tournament Challenge listed roughly 195 perfect brackets out of ~26 million entries, the NCAA tracker showed 224 perfect out of ~36 million, while Yahoo and CBS reported single‑digit perfect entries after Day 1. (sportingnews.com)) Individual games produced huge single‑game bracket damage — Creighton’s 89–75 win over Louisville reportedly busted about 13,339,089 ESPN brackets, and McNeese’s 69–67 win over Clemson busted roughly 6.6 million ESPN brackets. (newsnationnow.com))
