Every March, fans of all teams are united through this tournament, eager to see who’s going to win next. The top seeds are your classics, while the lower ones are newer to this bracket. With the advent of NIL, top teams are dominating the tournament with such a large skill difference. The question is: are we going to be seeing fewer Cinderella stories? The statistics do support this question, and we can even see that in this year’s final four (#1 Michigan, #1 Arizona, #2 UConn, and #3 Illinois). These teams play high number seeds early on, reducing the chances for an upset win.
However, anything could happen in March. #15 Saint Peter’s made the Elite Eight in 2022 and #16 Fairleigh Dickinson knocked out #1 Purdue in 2023. These upset wins usually have similar conditions with one another. They have a hot player that changes the pace of the game or the mentality that they have nothing to lose. The Cinderella story will always be possible but it’s harder and tougher than ever before.
