Most Cinderella Final Four

So, I don’t know about your bracket, but mine’s pretty trashed. In fact, the whole left side is pretty much all X’s.

I mean, a 16 beats a 1, an 11 beats a 3, a 9 a 1, another 11 over a 3 … This has to be the biggest upset tournament ever, right? Well, let’s just see about that.


Methodology

Now, there’s a coupla ways to do this. The easiest, though, is just to focus on the Final Four. In particular, let’s just add up all the seeds for every team in the FF. You know, a 4 means 4 number 1’s. Four 16’s means a 64. So, what’s that give us?

NOTE:  I’m limiting myself to the open tournament era only. 64-game tournaments actually only go back to 1985, a mere 34 years. It just wouldn’t be apples to apples if I tried to extend it further back.


Least

Least what? Er, least upset-y? Um, interesting? Why, cinderelly, of course!

Believe it or not, there was once a Final Four with 4 #1’s. Yup, 2008 – UNC, UCLA, Kansas, and Memphis. Zzzzzz …

The most interesting storyline that year was Steph Curry almost leading his #10 Davidson Wildcats to the FF.

Average

So, what’s normal? What can we compare ourselves to? 

Well, that would be an 11. Oddly, only 2 tournaments out of 34 have hit that number on the nose. And those were:

• 1996 – Massachusetts (1), Kentucky (1), Syracuse (4), Mississippi St. (5)
• 2005 – UNC (1), Illinois (1), Louisville (4), Michigan St. (5)

2005 started out great, with Bucknell beating Kansas, and Vermont defeating Syracuse.

2018

So, this one was actually closer to the average than I ever thought it would be. And, yes, even though 1 team – Loyola of Chicago, who last made it to the FF in 1963 – had 11 whole points itself. Unfortunately, the other 3 were a 3 (Michigan) and 2 1’s (Kansas and Villanova). Total: 16.

If only Florida State had won. That would have gotten us over 20. In fact, if all the right teams had won in the Elite 8, that would have given us 25. Interestingly, though, that would not have set the record.

Sister Jean!

Best

2011 had something of a split personality. On the one hand, you had your usual suspects – Uconn at a 3, and Kentucky at a 4. On the other hand, you had a 8, Butler, and an 11, VCU. Only 3 Final Fours have not featured a #1 seed – 2011, 2006, and 1980. Total: 26.

By the way, 11 is the lowest seed to ever make it to the FF. In addition to VCU and Loyola-Chicago this year, LSU (1986) and George Mason (2006) also made it to the final weekend. None, though, ever made it past Saturday.

Shaka!