It’s March and, as usual, the country is caught up in a furor of college basketball’s biggest tournament as 68 teams battle for the NCAA Division I national championship. The amount of upsets this year has been phenomenal, and we have listed some of the biggest stories from the first two days.
Major upsets break brackets
Going into the tournament, college basketball fans around the country filled out brackets, guessing who they thought would win. Millionaire Warren Buffet once again offered a million dollar prize to the person who got a perfect bracket. Unfortunately, after Day 1, which saw the likes of Arizona, Baylor, and Purdue upset, only 14,525 of the 13 million brackets remained.
Those remaining brackets would not last long though, as Day 2 went down in the history books as the first time a 15th, 14th, and 13th seed won on the same day.
Day 2 saw Stephen F. Austin upset third seeded West Virginia, Northern Iowa upset sixth seeded Texas, 13th seeded upset fourth seeded California, and the biggest upset as 15th seeded defeated second seeded Michigan State.
“I was okay after the first day, but that second day destroyed my bracket,” said David Legarra, a sophomore business major from Arizona. “The upsets were crazy, even though I called Middle Tennessee upset my bracket was still wrecked.”
Unlike Legarra, many fans across America were not so lucky with their guesses and after Day 2 there were no perfect brackets.
ACC thrives while PAC-12 flops
Four major conferences each had seven teams invited to the tournament: Big 10, Big 12, PAC-12 and ACC. For all but the PAC-12, the tournament so far has been a good showing for their conferences, especially the ACC.
Of the seven ACC teams invited to the tournament, six have made it to the Sweet Sixteen, Pittsburgh being the only team to lose.
The conference stands to make more than $30 million dollars according to espn.com. On the opposite side, the NCAA tournament proved to be a disaster for the PAC-12.
Of the seven teams invited, five lost their first round games and only one has made it to the Sweet Sixteen (Oregon) after Utah lost to 11 seeded Gonzaga.
Cinderella runs
Two lower seeded teams made it to the Sweet Sixteen: Gonzaga (11) and Syracuse (10). The two teams faced each other on March 25 in Chicago, and though Gonzaga went into the game as the favorite after their 23-point victory over third seeded Utah, Syracuse won 63-60.
Notre Dame (6) and Wisconsin (7) will also face each other for a chance to continue their Cinderella run into the Elite Eight.
“Cinderella runs are one of the best parts of March Madness. I am pulling for Gonzaga or Notre Dame to get some upsets and make it to the Final Four,” said Ben Crosland, a business major from Utah.