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Biggest upset in NCAA tourney history busts remaining brackets

Jay Hart
Senior editor

Let's just call it: No. 2 Michigan St. losing to No. 15 Middle Tennessee is the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history.

And so with the Spartans 90-81 loss, it should come as no surprise there are no perfect brackets left in Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick 'Em.

Consider:

• Michigan St. was the second-most popular pick among Yahoo users to win the entire tournament. More than 27.3 percent of Yahoo users picked Michigan St. to win the whole thing, second only to Kansas at 31.3 percent. (And third place, UNC at 14.1, wasn't even close).

• 98.8 percent of brackets picked Michigan St. to advance past the first round. (What's more stunning: That MSU lost or that more than 30,000 actually picked Middle Tennessee to win?) That's the largest pick count upset since Yahoo Sports started tracking pick count in 2003. (The previous record was 98.4 when second-seeded Missouri lost to Norfolk State in 2012.)

• More than 70 percent had the Spartans advancing to the Final Four.

• Vegas pegged Michigan St. as a 11/2 favorite to win the tournament, second only to Kansas at 9/2.

• Not even Ricky Rubio picked Middle Tennessee to win.

It's not the biggest upset in terms of spread (MSU was a 16.5 favorite). That goes to Missouri, a 21.5-point favorite over Norfolk State in 2012. The Tigers lost 86-84.

The day started with 99.999 percent of brackets already busted, thanks to upsets by Yale and Arkansas Little Rock. Roughly 300 still stood until Middle Tennessee did their thing.

Two years ago it took 37 games to eliminate the entire field. Last year it took 27. This year, 21.

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