If Thursday's games didn't do it, Friday's set did.
The NCAA Tournament is host to bracket-busting upsets on a yearly basis and this 2016 installment hasn't been any exception.
But the numbers behind the brackets this year are especially amazing.
Twelfth-seeded Yale's huge upset of No. 5 Baylor in first-round action of the 2016 NCAA Tournament was enough to destroy most people's brackets and it was only compounded by other upsets such as No. 13 Hawaii's win over fourth-seeded Cal and No. 11 Northern Iowa's upset of sixth-seeded Texas on the same day.
While those outcomes — especially Yale's unforeseen win, which was the first tourney victory in its school's history — busted most people's bracket dreams, No. 12 Arkansas-Little Rock's win over fifth-seeded Purdue and 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee knocking out No. 2 Michigan State more than did damage.
What kind of damage?
Well, ESPN business reporter Darren Rovell pointed it out best with a tweet.
0: # of perfect brackets left, out of 13.02 million on https://t.co/fTASB2ZYtL, after the 1st 24 games.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 18, 2016
Unbelievable. Out of the 13 million-plus fans who filled out brackets on ESPN.com, zero of them survived the tournament's first 24 games, largely in part to the Yale and Middle Tennessee upsets.
Pretty much, if the Yale upset didn't throw off your entire bracket, chances are the Middle Tennessee upset of Michigan State did. After all, who saw that coming?
The Spartans were as powerful as any team entering the Big Dance this year, powering their way to a second seed in the Midwest region of the tournament's bracket. That and they were led by Denzel Valentine, a senior guard NBA prospect, who averaged 19.2 points, 7.8 assists and 7.5 rebounds per game this season as a potential player of the year candidate.
College basketball experts couldn't have even seen this upset coming, but Middle Tennessee just proved itself to be the wrong matchup at the wrong time for the Spartans. The fact that zero of the 13 million had perfect brackets after the first 24 games of the tournament shows how much parity exists in March Madness and just how unpredictable it can be.
We hear of powerhouse, front-running teams every year, but a Yale and Middle Tennessee just goes to show how anything could happen.
Interestingly enough, both squads failed to punch their ticket to the Sweet 16, though, suffering rout losses in the second round.
