NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship upsets

An upset is a victory by an underdog team. In the context of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, a single-elimination tournament, this generally constitutes a higher seeded team defeating a lower-seeded (and thus higher-ranked) team; a widely recognized upset is one performed by a team ranked substantially lower than its opponent.

This is the list of victories by teams seeded 11 or higher in the tournament since it expanded to 64 teams in 1985; as these high-seeded teams were automatically paired against lower-seeded teams at the start of the tournament, their opening victories are almost always considered upsets. Most victories by these teams in later rounds were usually against better seeded opponents as well.

Round of 64

This round was called the First Round until 2011, when the introduction of the First Four caused the round to be renamed the Second Round. As of the 2016 tournament, it has returned to being called the First Round. There have been ten wins by double-digit seeds in 2016, which is the most in tournament history. In 2001 and 2012, there were nine upsets during First Round play.^[1]

16 vs. 1

Excluding the play-in games, a 16-seed has never won a game in the men's tournament. There have been fifteen 1-seed vs. 16-seed games decided by single digits, the most recent occurring in 2014 when Arizona defeated Weber State 68–59, only one year after Gonzaga narrowly defeated Southern 64-58 in 2013. Sixteenth-seeded Murray State took top seeded Michigan State to overtime in 1990, but eventually lost 75-71. Two 16-seeds have come within two points of upsetting a #1 seed, both in 1989. In the East Regional, Georgetown hung on to win 50-49 against a Princeton squad who were 23 point underdogs. Princeton had the opportunity to win the game with the last shot, but Alonzo Mourning blocked the last two attempts to secure the victory. In the Southeast Regional, Oklahoma fought back from a 17-point first-half deficit to take the lead over East Tennessee State with 1:21 remaining. ETSU also had a chance at a last-second win, but Alvin West's shot from halfcourt was deflected and Oklahoma defeated ETSU 72-71.^[2] In 1996, Western Carolina missed a three-pointer to win and a two-pointer to tie in the final seconds, losing 73-71 to Purdue. In 2014, Coastal Carolina was tied with Virginia with eight minutes remaining in the second half before UVA pulled away for a 70-59 win.

15 vs. 2

There have been eight (8) 15 seeds that have defeated 2 seeds (6.25%) ^[3]in the first round:^[4]

14 vs. 3

There have been twenty-one (21) 14 seeds that have defeated 3 seeds in the first round:

13 vs. 4

There have been twenty-six (26) 13 seeds to defeat 4 seeds in the first round:

12 vs. 5

There have been forty-six (46) 12 seeds to defeat 5 seeds in the first round:

11 vs. 6

There have been forty-six (46) 11 seeds that have defeated 6 seeds in the first round:

Round of 32

This round was called the Second Round until 2011, when the introduction of the First Four caused this round to be renamed the Third Round. It will once again be known as the Second Round as of the 2016 tournament.

15 seeds

There has only been one 15 seed that won its second-round game.

14 seeds

There have been two 14 seeds to win their second-round games. Both were against 6 seeds.

13 seeds

There have been six 13 seeds to win their second-round games. Seeds of the losing teams are in parentheses. In every case, the 13 seed faced a higher seed with their victory being an upset strictly according to seeding.

12 seeds

There have been twenty 12 seeds to win their second-round games. Seeds of the losing teams are in parentheses. In eight of these cases, the opponent was a 13 seed, and thus the victory would not constitute an upset according to the seeding. However, in twelve of these cases, the opponent was a 4 seed.

11 seeds

There have been nineteen 11 seeds to win their second-round games and advance to the Sweet 16. Seeds of the losing teams are in parentheses. In five of these cases, the opponent was a 14 seed, and thus the victory would not constitute an upset according to the seeding.

Sweet Sixteen

12 seeds

There has been only one 12 seed to ever win a Sweet 16 game.

11 seeds

There have been six 11 seeds to win in the Sweet 16 and advance to the Elite 8.

Elite Eight

11 Seeds

There have been three 11 seeds to win in the Elite 8 and advance to the Final Four. However, all of these teams did not advance any further, losing their national semifinal matchups.

10 Seeds

There has been one 10 seed to win in the Elite 8 and advance to the Final Four. However, this team did not advance any further, losing in the national semifinals.

References