What Can The Numbers Tell Us About Choosing A Bracket?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – There are 63 choices to make when picking a March Madness bracket.
People can make those choices based on everything from team colors, school mascots, CBS Sports analyst recommendations or whatever your dog decides to eat.
But what can the numbers tell us about choosing a bracket? Good Question.
Experts will tell you don't only choose 1-seeded teams. According to the NCAA, only once in 34 years have all four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four. A 1-seed only wins the championship 58 percent of the time.
There are generally between 10 and 16 upsets per tournament. Half of them happen in the first round.
The No. 8 and No. 9 seeded matchups are a tossup because each team wins 50 percent of the time. When it comes to 10- and 11-seeds advancing to the second round, that happens 38 percent of the time. For No. 12 seeds, it's 35 percent and No. 13 seeds, it's 20 percent. No. 14 seeds have advanced 15 percent of the time and 15-seeds 6 percent.
Only once has a No. 16 seed beat a 1-seed. That was last year's matchup between Virginia and UMBC.