March Madness is officially here, and everyone has their brackets ready to fill out.
This season is unlike any other because we had a new record set for a conference with the greatest number of teams make it into the dance. The SEC has an unreal 14 selections this season, shattering the old Big East record set in 2011 with 11 bids. That season the Big East's best went on to win, but it was a brutal stretch and most of the 11 teams came up well short of expectations, so much so that people questioned their selections for years.
This season we have one of the most top-heavy conferences, but also one of the most top heavy #1 seeds that we have seen in a long time. There was a time this year where Duke and Auburn were both down to under 3 to 1 to win the title, that's how dominant they looked.
History is not with the #1 seeds though, so all the "can't lose" teams better be on high alert. The pressure is on the top seeds and it's a gauntlet of a tournament that is designed specifically to make it nearly impossible to navigate.
The numbers back it all up. Just once since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985 have all four #1 seeds reached the Final Four. You have to go all the way back to 2008 to find out when that last occurred. In fact, there has only been five times in history when three #1 seeds have reached the Final Four, that last happened in 2015.
Let's keep going ...
Since the tournament field went to 68 teams in 2011, The #1 seeds have been just over 30% of the teams in the Final Four.
The good news is only twice having no #1 seeds reached the Final Four, if that is a small consolation to filling out your brackets.