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What does it take to truly bust a March Madness bracket

Plenty of brackets got off to a slow start to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, but at what point can you consider a bracket to be truly busted?
ByJosh Yourish|
The March Madness logo at midcourt at the Intrust Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
The March Madness logo at midcourt at the Intrust Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Nearly half of all brackets took a loss in the first game of March Madness with No. 9 seed Creighton taking out No. 8 seed Louisville in the South Region. Then, once No. 4 seed Purdue knocked off No. 13 seed High Point in the Midwest Region, nearly two-thirds of brackets submitted to Yahoo Sports were no longer in the running for Warren Buffet’s billion-dollar payday or Elon Musk’s trip to Mars. 

Understandably, Yahoo Fantasy Sports saw an opportunity for content (much like we have in this moment), and it’s certainly fascinating to see just how many people already had to use some red pen just two games into the NCAA Tournament. However, we at Busting Brackets disagree with Yahoo about what constitutes a “busted bracket” and really shouldn’t we be the experts?

For a bracket to truly be busted, a team that its owner had going to the Final Four has to lose in the first weekend. I’ll even consider a bracket that loses one or two Elite Eight teams on the first two days of The Big Dance to be “busted” but either way it’s unlikely that over 60% of Yahoo brackets had Louisville or High Point hanging around that deep into this thing. 

Creighton over Louisville was a slight upset by seeding, but most have either team losing to Auburn, the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed, in the second round on Saturday. And while High Point was a popular upset pick, it’s safe to say that very few brackets had the Panthers making a true Cinderella run. 

Yes, we’re simply arguing semantics because ultimately we have to assume that the statistics are correct and that over 60% of brackets were no longer perfect just two games in. And honestly, that is pretty crazy and highlights how difficult it is to win your office bracket pool let alone survive the first day unscathed. But many of the people in the 63.7% of flawed brackets are definitely still in the mix to take home some cash in early April. 

Simply put, it takes a little more than a nine over an eight and a four beating a 13 for a bracket to be truly busted.

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