Simulation and Historical Statistics for the NCAA Tournament

Statistics from a trillion brackets for the 2025 and historical NCAA Tournaments

📊

All historical data covers 1985–2025 (40 tournaments), when the bracket expanded to 64 teams. The 2020 tournament was cancelled.

Historical Performance

Best bracket from 1T simulations vs. best public brackets

Year Public 1T
20254363 ✓
20243146
20232545
20222848
20212844
Year Public 1T
20194957
201828
20173959
201625
201534

Correct picks out of 63 games

NCAA Tournament History

Seeds, championships, and Final Four appearances

40 tournaments

First Round Win Rate by Seed

Round of 64 only (excludes First Four play-in games)

#1
98.8%
#2
93.1%
#3
85.6%
#4
79.4%
#5
64.4%
#6
61.3%
#7
61.3%
#8
48.1%
#9
51.9%
#10
38.8%
#11
38.8%
#12
35.6%
#13
20.6%
#14
14.4%
#15
6.9%
#16
1.3%

*Only 2 sixteen-seeds have ever won: UMBC (2018), FDU (2023)

Championship Wins by Seed

40 champions total

1
26 titles
65.0%
2
5 titles
12.5%
3
4 titles
10.0%
4
2 titles
5.0%
6
1 title
2.5%
7
1 title
2.5%
8
1 title
2.5%
Notable Lowest Seeds to Win
#8 Villanova '85
#7 UConn '14
#6 Kansas '88

Final Four Appearances by Seed

160 total Final Four spots (4 per year × 40 years, minus 2020)

#1
66
41.3%
#2
32
20.0%
#3
17
10.6%
#4
15
9.4%
#5
9
5.6%
#8
6
3.8%
#11
6
3.8%
#6
3
1.9%
#7
3
1.9%
#9
2
1.3%
#10
1
0.6%

*Seeds 12-16 have never reached the Final Four

Most Championships

UCONN
🏆 🏆 🏆 🏆 🏆 🏆 (6)
Duke
🏆 🏆 🏆 🏆 🏆 (5)
North Carolina
🏆 🏆 🏆 🏆 (4)
Florida
🏆 🏆 🏆 (3)
Villanova
🏆 🏆 🏆 (3)
Kansas
🏆 🏆 🏆 (3)
Kentucky
🏆 🏆 🏆 (3)
Louisville
🏆 🏆 (2)

11 other teams have won 1 title each

Most Final Fours Without a Title

Houston
3 FFs
Oklahoma
3 FFs
Ohio St
3 FFs
Wisconsin
3 FFs
Georgetown
2 FFs
Memphis
2 FFs
LSU
2 FFs
Illinois
2 FFs
Georgia Tech
2 FFs
Oklahoma St
2 FFs

*Houston lost the 2025 championship to Florida, their 3rd Final Four without a title

🏛️ Conference Dominance

All-time tournament wins by conference

ACC
389 11🏆
Big Ten
338 3🏆
Big East
336 10🏆
SEC
287 6🏆
Big 12
217 3🏆
Pac-10
141 2🏆
Atlantic 10
95 0🏆
Big Eight
71 1🏆
Pac-12
66 0🏆
WCC
61 0🏆

Cinderella Final Fours

10-seeds or lower to reach the Final Four

10
Syracuse
2016
11
LSU
1986
11
George Mason
2006
11
VCU
2011
11
Loyola-Chicago
2018
11
UCLA
2021
11
NC State
2024

*No seed lower than 11 has ever reached the Final Four

Team Records

All-time tournament performance leaders

🏅 Most Tournament Wins

Top 15 programs all-time

# Team W %
1 Duke 105 76.6%
2 North Carolina 98 76.0%
3 Kansas 94 72.9%
4 Kentucky 84 73.7%
5 Connecticut 67 78.8%
6 Michigan St 63 66.3%
7 Arizona 58 63.0%
8 Syracuse 57 67.1%
9 UCLA 55 66.3%
10 Michigan 51 69.9%
11 Louisville 49 67.1%
12 Florida 48 68.6%
13 Villanova 47 68.1%
14 Gonzaga 46 63.9%
15 Purdue 40 57.1%

📊 Most Appearances

Top 15 teams all-time

# Team App FF 🏆
1 Kansas 38 10 3
2 Duke 37 13 5
3 North Carolina 35 12 4
4 Arizona 35 4 1
5 Kentucky 33 8 3
6 Michigan St 33 8 1
7 Purdue 30 1 0
8 Texas 30 1 0
9 Syracuse 29 5 1
10 UCLA 29 5 1
11 Oklahoma 27 3 0
12 Xavier 27 0 0
13 Indiana 27 3 1
14 Illinois 26 2 0
15 Louisville 26 4 2

Scoring Records

Highest, lowest, and most lopsided games

Highest-Scoring Games

Top 5 combined scores

Loyola Marymount
vs Michigan '90
264 pts
Loyola Marymount
vs Wyoming '88
234 pts
UNLV
vs Loyola Marymount '90
232 pts
Arkansas
vs Loyola Marymount '89
221 pts
North Carolina
vs Loyola Marymount '88
220 pts

Lowest-Scoring Games

Boring!!!!

Missouri St
vs Wisconsin '99
75 pts
Princeton
vs UCLA '96
84 pts
Kansas
vs Ohio '85
87 pts
Villanova
vs Maryland '85
89 pts
Wisconsin
vs Pittsburgh '16
90 pts

Biggest Blowouts

Top 5 largest margins of victory

+58
Kansas
vs Prairie View
1998
+56
Connecticut
vs Chattanooga
2009
+49
Syracuse
vs Brown
1986
+47
Duke
vs Winthrop
2002
+47
Syracuse
vs Montana
2013

Consecutive Streaks

Longest tournament appearance streaks

🥇
35
Kansas
1990-2025
🥈
27
Michigan St
1998-2025
🥉
26
Gonzaga
1999-2025
4
25
Arizona
1985-2009
5
24
Duke
1996-2019

*Kansas has made 35 straight tournaments—the longest active streak in NCAA history

Fun Facts

2,537
Total Games
695
Upsets
313
Teams

🏆 Most Common Championship Seed Matchups

1 vs 1
1 vs 2
2 vs 3
1 vs 3
1 vs 4
1 vs 5
1 vs 8
1 vs 6
3 vs 3
3 vs 8