NCAA Tournament: Notre Dame ruins last perfect Yahoo bracket standing

After Thursday's first day of NCAA tournament action, only 14 perfect Yahoo Tourney Pick'Em brackets remained.

By Friday afternoon, there were none.

An entry named Go Back To Webster Ave. was the last bracket standing after Miami edged USC, 68-66 on Friday. It was the only bracket to correctly pick the tournament's first 22 games. That means that they picked No. 15 St. Peter's to beat No. 2 Kentucky, No. 12 New Mexico to beat No. 5 UConn and No. 12 Richmond to beat No. 5 Iowa — impressive work indeed.

But it was Notre Dame that did them in. Go Back To Webster Ave. picked No. 6 Alabama to defeat No. 11 Notre Dame in the 23rd game of the tournament on Friday. But a day after St. Patrick's Day, the Fighting Irish prevailed, 78-64 to advance to the second round of NCAA tournament play and end Go Back To Webster Ave.'s bid at perfection.

It was a good run.

In case you're wondering, Go Back To Webster Ave. has Villanova, Kansas, Baylor and Gonzaga in its Final Four with Villanova defeating Gonzaga for the national championship.

In the end, St. Peter's did the vast majority of us in. Kentucky, which entered the tournament with the third-best odds of winning the national championship, was picked to advance to Round 2 in a whopping 98.2% of Yahoo Tourney Pick'Em brackets. The Notre Dame upset helped ensure that perfect brackets ended right around when they did in 2021, which saw a first-round upset of No. 4 Virginia by No. 13 Ohio claim the final bracket standing. Had Kentucky won on Thursday, 54 brackets would have remained perfect through the Notre Dame-Alabama game.

So we'll have to keep waiting for that elusive first-ever perfect NCAA tournament bracket. Maybe next year. But probably not.