Papa John’s has agreed to give up to 1,000,000 fans who enter “The Papa John’s Perfect Bracket Challenge” at SportingNews.com a free pepperoni pizza if one fan comes up with a perfect NCAA Division Men’s Basketball Championship bracket. Giving away one million large Papa’s Perfect Pan pepperoni pizzas has roughly a $15 million retail value.

Registration is free and will begin immediately after the seeding is announced Sunday, March 12, and continue until five minutes before tip-off of the first game on Thursday, March 16. Complete rules are available at SportingNews.com. More than 100,000 fans are expected to participate in this year’s challenge.

“Filling out a bracket is part of the American culture during tourney time,” says Bill Van Epps, Papa’s John’s chief operations officer. “And completing a perfect bracket is the crowning achievement for any sports fan. To make the accomplishment even more significant, we want all fans to be rooting for perfection and to share in the thrill of potentially splitting one million pizzas!”

Even if a perfect bracket is not achieved, the entrant with the highest points total will receive a year of free pizza and a lifetime subscription to Sporting News magazine. And just for registering, all entrants will receive a redemption code from Papa John’s good for a free large one topping pizza with the purchase of an extra large specialty pizza at regular menu price at www.papajohns.com.

“We are excited to be partnering with Papa John’s in this year’s bracket contest,” says Jason Kint, vice president and general manager of SportingNews.com. “This added incentive of free pizza should have every sports fan in America searching through the insider information from our Sporting News experts to assemble the perfect bracket.”