If you are looking for March Madness bracket picks for the round of 64, brackets are generally due by noon on Thursday. We have the historical records by seed for the men’s tournament since the tournament expanded to 64 teams here to help you look at the potential for upsets while making your picks. Many of you will just want to know how the seed your team earned has done over time. We’ll review all of that and a little more below.
How Does Looking at History Records Help with My Bracket Challenge Entry?
By checking out the historical record, it can help inform us for how we might see some of the outcomes turn out this season. This is especially true when we’re trying to pick out a Cinderella or two in a bracket challenge entry. All of the data comes from NCAA.org. You will find the men’s data varies from the women’s.
The top seeds have the most wins and titles with 25 championships. Seeds 1 through 6 have overall winning records. While #7 seeds have a winning record against #10 seeds, they lost to 10’s at a higher rate than they win against #2 or #15 seeds in the next round. Here’s the data for you to check out. The data is since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
March Madness Historical Records by Seed – Men’s
| SEED | OVERALL RECORD | BEST FINISH |
| No. 1 | 500-128 | Champions (25 times) |
| No. 2 | 354-147 | Champions (five times) |
| No. 3 | 281-148 | Champions (four times) |
| No. 4 | 235-150 | Champion (two times) |
| No. 5 | 176-152 | Runner-up (four times) |
| No. 6 | 160-151 | Champions (once) |
| No. 7 | 136-151* | Champions (once) |
| No. 8 | 110-151 | Champions (once) |
| No. 9 | 93-152 | Final Four (two times) |
| No. 10 | 93-151* | Final Four (once) |
| No. 11 | 98-152 | Final Four (five times) |
| No. 12 | 77-152 | Elite Eight (two times) |
| No. 13 | 38-152 | Sweet 16 (six times) |
| No. 14 | 24-152 | Sweet 16 (two times) |
| No. 15 | 16-152 | Sweet 16 (once) |
| No. 16 | 2-152 | Second round (two times) |
*There was one game declared a no-contest based on COVID protocols with regards to why these numbers are off by one.
How Can You Use Historical Records by Seed?
Looking at seeds in the past can help you out when you just flat out don’t know anything about the two teams. If you don’t watch a ton of college basketball, then you probably are like my spouse and have to google the school’s name to see where they are located. That’s ok. Sometimes it feels like there are a million DI schools out there.
Now, you can use the results to help make edge picks in your bracket. So, you can see the #5 seed has been runner-up five times, but never won it all. Is this the year? Or do you go with the history? We are dealing with relatively small numbers statistically, but now you have the math. You can check out some of our other bracket tips here. We also have the complete men’s and women’s March Madness TV schedules posted up to help you follow the action. Enjoy.
