March Badness 2024
68 underdogs enter; only one leaves
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It’s that time again: March Badness is back!
While the rest of the college basketball world focuses on the best teams in the sport and also NC State, we here at The Low Major turn our eyes to the game’s biggest underdogs as we reveal our third annual 68-team bracket of the very worst résumés and metrics in Division I!
New this season, I teased our bracket last month, when I did a top-16 seed reveal in the same format that the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses for theirs.
All 16 of those teams remain represented on the final bracket.
Today, we’ll meet the other 52, celebrate the seasons each participant had, and—for the first time—simulate the bracket to determine a March Badness Chumpion!
Let’s get right into it! Here are the ground rules:
Ground rules
The NCAA Tournament selects their field of 68 by awarding an automatic bid to the champions of all 32 Division I conferences. The conferences are technically allowed to decide who gets the autobid however they want, but all 32 of them bestow it upon the conference tournament champion.1
The other 36 teams are at-large selections—the non-champions with the best overall bodies of work over the course of the season, as decided by the committee. They consider efficiency metrics, quality wins, bad losses, et cetera.
For March Badness, our selection committee—which is just one person: me—takes both of these tenets and flips them on their head. Autobids are given to the team in each conference that finished in last place. For at-large bids, I still consider efficiency metrics, quality wins, and bad losses—but instead of valuing quality wins and devaluing bad losses, I’m doing the exact opposite.
For the sake of transparency, I considered the following data points:
KenPom: For each team, I looked at both their KenPom ranking (out of 362 Division I teams) and their Adjusted Efficiency Margin (AdjEM). Considering the raw number is important because some ranking gaps are wider than others; for example, #361 Coppin State and #362 Mississippi Valley State are separated by 4.96 points in AdjEM, while #294 Chicago State and #295 Sacred Heart both have an AdjEM of -10.18.
WAB: Wins Above Bubble, a metric from Bart Torvik meant to simulate how humans view the quality of every win and loss. Each win is worth a maximum of 1 WAB and each loss is worth a minimum of -1 WAB. The bubble is supposed to be right around 0 WAB total. Non-Division I games are excluded from this metric.
WAB/gm: Because not every team played the same amount of games over the course of the season, a counting stat like WAB is going to have major discrepancies, so I also considered each team’s average WAB per Division I game.
NET: The NCAA Evaluation Tool used to sort teams into quadrants. This is another efficiency metric and it’s generally understood to be less trustworthy than KenPom, so I weight it less than KenPom, but I do still consider it.
Quadrant records: The NET sorts results into quadrants based on the opponent’s spot in the ranking and the location of the game. Quadrant 1 consists of the hardest games and Quadrant 4 consists of the easiest. For an example, and to show where the cutoffs for each quadrant are, here’s Minnesota’s final, NIT-worthy ledger:
Non-D1 record: Losing a game to an opponent who isn’t even in Division I will make your résumé look significantly worse and likely raise you at least one seed line on this bracket.
When I put the bracket together, these metrics were current through Tuesday, March 26.
To make sure I’m getting the least impressive possible bracket, I also eliminate some teams that just shouldn’t be here, for one reason or another.
Eliminated teams
The NCAA disallows schools from participating in sanctioned postseason events—the NCAA Tournament and NIT—as they’re still transitioning to Division I. They consider the transition period to be four years,2 so teams who have played four or fewer seasons at the D1 level were ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. As such, I’ve also eliminated them from March Badness; it just doesn’t seem fair to highlight the lack of accomplishments from teams who technically have nothing to play for.
That removed the following March Badness hopefuls:
Stonehill (definitely would have been in)
Lindenwood (definitely would have been in)
Texas A&M–Commerce (likely would have been in)
Southern Indiana (likely would have been in)
Bellarmine (likely would have been in)
Le Moyne (would have been eliminated under other rules)
Utah Tech (probably would have been in)
Queens (would have been on the bubble)
Next, I narrowed it down to the teams that lost more than they won, both on a full-season basis and during conference play. If your overall record or conference play record are .500 or better, you’re out. This rule used to allow teams right at .500 to be selected, but I changed it for this year. To be a loser, you have to lose.
That spared several teams who would have otherwise had at least a tiny chance:
Alabama A&M (9-9 SWAC)
Lafayette (10-8 Patriot)
Morgan State (7-7 MEAC)
Western Michigan (9-9 MAC)
Bucknell (10-8 Patriot)
Boston University (10-8 Patriot)
FDU (9-7 NEC)
Lehigh (9-9 Patriot)
Southeastern (10-8 Southland)
Bethune-Cookman (17-17 overall)
Jackson State (11-7 SWAC)
American (10-8 Patriot)
SC State (9-5 MEAC)
Tennessee State (18-15 overall)
Alcorn State (13-5 SWAC)
Sacred Heart (16-16 overall)
SIU Edwardsville (17-16 overall)
Niagara (16-16 overall)
Denver (17-17 overall)
New Hampshire (16-15 overall)
Texas Southern (12-6 SWAC)
Our third rule says that no more than half of any given conference can be selected for March Badness, but the wealth of underperforming teams was spread so evenly throughout the lower rungs of Division I that this rule didn’t come close to being activated.
Fourth, I eliminated every team that made it to the championship game of their conference tournament. If you were just one win away from March Madness, you played yourself out of March Badness.
This rule on its own only nixed Delaware State of the MEAC, though Lehigh (Patriot), Denver (Summit), and Texas Southern (SWAC) also would have qualified if not for already being cut by the record rule.
Fifth and finally, a special shoutout to Wagner, who finished the regular season well within Badness range and then won three straight road games in the NEC Tournament to instead earn the NCAA autobid. In the First Four, they even earned their very first NCAA Tournament win—good for them!
Alright, enough about the teams who didn’t make the bracket. Here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Following the NCAA’s bracketing guidelines, I present to you…
The Bracket
In the top-16 reveal last month, I delved deeper into the statistics for each team and went into why I made the seeding decisions that I did. You can go back and read that piece if you want a better idea of how much I valued certain metrics, but doing that for 68 teams would be ridiculous.
Instead, I’d like to go through all 68 participants and note one good thing about their seasons.
1-seeds
Mississippi Valley State (SWAC autobid): Broke a 367-day losing streak on February 26 with their win over Prairie View A&M.
Coppin State (MEAC autobid): Blew out local rival UMBC, 89-70.
Detroit Mercy (Horizon autobid): Drew a one-man court storm following their February 14 win over IUPUI.
VMI (SoCon autobid): Finished higher in KenPom than they did last year…by one spot.
2-seeds
IUPUI (at-large, Horizon): Defeated fellow their fellow mini-Purdue in Fort Wayne on the road.
Siena (MAAC autobid): Defeated Niagara on the road and almost defeated them again in the conference tournament.
Florida A&M (at-large, SWAC): Won at Presbyterian on December 6, when Presbyterian was 5-3 in Division I games to that point.
Cal Poly (Big West autobid): Defeated St. Thomas (KenPom #145) on a neutral court.
3-seeds
Saint Francis (NEC autobid): Notched a two-game road win streak over Patriot League opponents, defeating Lehigh on November 29 and American on December 2.
Buffalo (MAC autobid): One of two MAC teams to prevail in the second wave of the MAC–Sun Belt Challenge on February 10, winning at Georgia Southern as the Sun Belt went 9-2 overall.
Southeast Missouri (OVC autobid): Bookended their OVC slate with two wins over Southern Indiana.
Maryland Eastern Shore (at-large, MEAC): Defeated Penn at home, 83-80 in overtime.
4-seeds
Pacific (WCC autobid): Started the season 4-3, including an 87-79 win at California.
Houston Christian (at-large, Southland): Celebrated the long and successful tenure of 33rd-year head coach Ron Cottrell, whose contract was not renewed at season’s end.
Loyola (MD) (Patriot autobid): Won five road games, including a non-conference tilt at Brown.
Army (at-large, Patriot): Won their first four games in February, going 4-3 overall in the month.
5-seeds
Incarnate Word (Southland autobid): Earned two non-conference road wins, at Arkansas–Pine Bluff and UIC.
Hampton (CAA autobid): A 2-seed in the top-16 reveal, recovered to win four of their last seven games.
New Orleans (at-large, Southland): Defeated both Texas A&M branch campuses back-to-back—Commerce on January 8 and Corpus Christi on January 13.
North Carolina A&T (at-large, CAA): Started 4-2 in CAA play, including a three-game win streak at Hampton, vs. Northeastern, and vs. William & Mary.
6-seeds
LIU (at-large, NEC): Defeated Texas A&M–Corpus Christi (#183 KenPom) by 15 points on a neutral court.
Holy Cross (at-large, Patriot): Defeated Georgetown on the road, 68-67.
Dartmouth (Ivy autobid): Voted to unionize on March 5 and proceeded to defeat Harvard later that night.
Central Arkansas (ASUN autobid): Began ASUN play 3-1, including a 96-86 road win at Lipscomb.
7-seeds
Tennessee Tech (at-large, OVC): Stomped rival Tennessee State, 70-50 at home.
Manhattan (at-large, MAAC): In their first four games, notched road wins at Bryant and Central Connecticut.
UTRGV (WAC autobid): Took down Seattle (#106 KenPom) at home, 81-80 in overtime.
Northwestern State (at-large, Southland): Won the games they should have, sweeping New Orleans, Incarnate Word, and Houston Christian.
8-seeds
NJIT (America East autobid): Defeated the America East’s top two teams in back-to-back games, downing Vermont on February 8 and UMass Lowell on February 10.
William & Mary (at-large, CAA): Defeated non-conference rival Old Dominion for the first time since 2019-20.
South Dakota (Summit autobid): Swept usual Summit League juggernaut North Dakota State.
Prairie View A&M (at-large, SWAC): Rattled off a three-game win streak at Abilene Christian, vs. UT Martin on a neutral, and at Eastern Kentucky from November 14-21.
9-seeds
Coastal Carolina (at-large, Sun Belt): Won comfortably at Texas State (#180 KenPom), 71-63.
Old Dominion (Sun Belt autobid): Defeated Drexel (#126 KenPom) and Radford (#226) in back-to-back games.
Sacramento State (Big Sky autobid): Rolled to the conference tournament semifinals by defeating Idaho and regular season champion Eastern Washington on back-to-back days.
Navy (at-large, Patriot): Went on a five-game win streak that spanned the last four games of the regular season and the first round of the Patriot League tournament.
10-seeds
Idaho (at-large, Big Sky): Defeated UC San Diego (#128 KenPom) on a neutral court, 73-70 in overtime.
Arkansas–Pine Bluff (at-large, SWAC): Between January 13 and February 3, won five of six games including road wins at Texas Southern and Grambling State.
Valparaiso (MVC autobid): Swept Illinois State, including a 59-50 road win.
Charleston Southern (at-large, Big South): Defeated eventual Big South NCAA Tournament representative Longwood, 83-77.
11-seeds
Robert Morris (at-large, Horizon): Easily swept IUPUI, winning 92-48 at home on January 4 and 80-63 on the road on January 20.
Alabama State (at-large, SWAC): Went 2-1 in an MTE on Samford’s home court, losing to Samford but defeating North Carolina A&T and Merrimack.
Georgia Southern (at-large, Sun Belt): Ended losing streak that spanned the first 12 games of the season with surprise 88-67 drubbing of Southern Miss on December 30.
UMBC (at-large, America East): Won an absolute barnburner at Albany on February 3; the final score was 114-102 in regulation.
12-seeds
FIU (C-USA autobid): Earned five wins over top-200 teams: UTEP, Sam Houston, Liberty, Western Kentucky, and Jacksonville State.
Eastern Illinois (at-large, OVC): Defeated the top two teams in the conference standings, UT Martin and Little Rock, on the road in back-to-back games.
Campbell (at-large, CAA): Eked out home wins over Hofstra (#113 KenPom) and UNC Wilmington (#119), the latter in double overtime.
DePaul (Big East autobid): Defeated local rival Chicago State, 70-58 at home.
13-seeds
Eastern Michigan (at-large, MAC): Won 61-60 at Akron, the MAC’s eventual NCAA Tournament representative.
Elon (at-large, CAA): Won 73-72 at UNC Wilmington.
USC Upstate (at-large, Big South): Was the only Big South team to defeat regular season champion High Point on the road, winning 86-81 in overtime on February 14.
Southern Utah (at-large, WAC): Won 73-70 at Tarleton (#130 KenPom).
14-seeds
ULM (at-large, Sun Belt): Went on two 3-game win streaks in the middle of the season, from January 20-28 and February 7-15.
The Citadel (at-large, SoCon): Destroyed Notre Dame on the road, 65-45.
Oral Roberts (at-large, Summit): Defeated local rival Tulsa for the third season in a row, winning 79-70 at home.
Idaho State (at-large, Big Sky): Swept Weber State (#157 KenPom) comfortably, winning 74-64 on the road on January 27 and 80-62 at home on February 24.
Mount St. Mary’s (at-large, MAAC): Capped off a four-game win streak with a blowout win over conference regular season champion Quinnipiac, 96-79 at home on February 10.
15-seeds
Portland (at-large, WCC): Defeated Santa Clara (#109 KenPom) at home, 80-75 in overtime.
Northern Arizona (at-large, Big Sky): Won 62-60 at Seattle.
Air Force (Mountain West autobid): Blew the doors off UNLV (#65 KenPom), 90-58 on the road on January 23, and later won at New Mexico (#27), 78-77 on February 24.
UTSA (American autobid): In a three-game win streak late in the season, won 64-62 at North Texas (#75 KenPom) and 77-73 at SMU (#74).
Radford (Big South autobid): Swept Longwood, including a 69-58 road win.
16-seeds
Louisville (ACC autobid): Defeated two top-100 KenPom teams, winning 80-71 at Miami (FL) (#98) and 101-92 vs. Florida State (#80).
George Washington (A-10 autobid): Began the season 14-3 and 3-1 in A-10 play, including an 84-82 road win over VCU (#72 KenPom).
Missouri (SEC autobid): Began the season 7-2, coming back from 20 points down to win 70-68 at Minnesota (#78 KenPom) and later winning 71-64 at Pitt (#36).
Oregon State (Pac-12 autobid): Defeated NCAA Tournament 2-seed Arizona (#5 KenPom), 83-80 at home.
West Virginia (Big 12 autobid): Etched wins over three top-50 KenPom teams: Texas (#24), Kansas (#28), and Cincinnati (#39).
Michigan (B1G autobid): Began the season 3-0 with a big 89-73 win at St. John’s (#25 KenPom) on November 13.
First four out
Northern Illinois (MAC): Deserved to be in the field on metrics (#307 KenPom), but notched two Quad 2 wins, something none of the at-large selections did.
Omaha (Summit): Pretty similar résumé to 14-seed Mount St. Mary’s, but playing four games against non-D1 opponents reduced their ability to gain valuable Quad 4 losses.
Canisius (MAAC): Would have been in the field comfortably if not for a Quad 2 win at St. Bonaventure.
CSU Bakersfield (Big West): The metrics are just a little too high (#248 KenPom) to push this bubbly résumé into the field.
Simulating the Bracket
So here’s how this is gonna work. I’m gonna simulate the 2024 March Badness bracket to determine our underdog of underdogs: the team I’ll call our March Badness Chumpion.
To do that, I’m going to simulate every matchup on NCAAGameSim.com, but—and you probably see where this is going—rather than send the winner of each matchup to the next round, I’ll send the loser. Instead of “win or go home”, it’s “winner go home”.
There’s one wrinkle here. If you go back up and look at the bracket, you’ll notice that I located the first and second round games the same way they do in the women’s tournament, where the top 16 seeds each get to host their own pod. This is a holdover from last year’s bracket, which I did not simulate.
Of course, home court advantage makes it moderately harder for the top seed in each pod to lose. I thought about changing this, but then decided to call it part of the challenge. The top seeds are the worst of the worst, after all; they should have little trouble losing to obviously better teams at home. Once we reach the Sorry Sixteen and beyond, when the competition is supposed to be more even, every game is on a neutral court.
With that out of the way, let’s simulate.
Early Eight
[16] Missouri 65 — 79 Oregon State [16]
[14] Idaho State 66 — 61 Mount St. Mary’s [14]
[16] West Virginia 80 — 59 Michigan [16]
[15] Portland 66 — 65 Northern Arizona [15]
Nothing too out of the ordinary here. West Virginia slaughtering Michigan is pretty hilarious, though.
Round of 64
Ann Arbor Regional
[1] Mississippi Valley State 67 — 63 Louisville [16]
[8] South Dakota 75 — 65 Navy [9]
[5] Incarnate—wait, hold on a second, what??
Woah! The first game I simulated in the Round of 64 and the #1 overall seed is already out. Immediately, I wondered if NCAA Game Simulator was on crack, so I ran this matchup again out of curiosity and Louisville won by 40. But that’s not the official result!
I gotta be honest, I don’t entirely know the underlying logic that goes into NCAA Game Simulator, but Mississippi Valley State is so far below everyone else in Division I in efficiency metrics that I was certain they were a lock to lose every game until at least the Errant Eight, likely by double digits, even with home court advantage. But that’s what a lot of folks said about Purdue last year3 and, well…all I can say is: this is March!
[5] Incarnate Word 60 — 67 FIU [12]
[4] Army 55 — 64 Elon [13]
[6] Central Arkansas 76 — 78 UMBC [11]
[3] Saint Francis 81 — 77 ULM [14] | 2OT
[7] Tennessee Tech 62 — 58 Arkansas–Pine Bluff [10]
[2] Cal Poly 68 — 77 Radford [15]
By metrics, Saint Francis was underseeded on the 3-line, so them going down in the Round of 64 is a bit of a surprise, but I’d say needing double overtime to beat this ULM team at home is still proof positive of badness.
Morgantown Regional
[1] Coppin State 60 — 81 Missouri [16]
[8] Prairie View A&M 48 — 65 Old Dominion [9]
[5] Hampton 63 — 76 Eastern Illinois [12]
[4] Loyola (MD) 64 — 59 Southern Utah [13]
[6] Dartmouth 54 — 77 Georgia Southern [11]
[3] Buffalo 81 — 82 The Citadel [14]
[7] Manhattan 73 — 55 Idaho [10]
[2] Florida A&M 59 — 71 UTSA [15]
Loyola (MD) winning their second home game against a Division I opponent all season might actually be more unrealistic than Mississippi Valley State beating Louisville; I’ll have to think on it. It took the Greyhounds until the very last day of the regular season to finally pull out a one-point home win against Army.
Corvallis Regional
[1] Detroit Mercy 68 — 94 Michigan [16]
[8] William & Mary 71 — 87 Coastal Carolina [9]
[5] North Carolina A&T 64 — 57 DePaul [12]
[4] Houston Christian 73 — 64 USC Upstate [13]
[6] Holy Cross 69 — 68 Alabama State [11]
[3] Southeast Missouri 62 — 72 Mount St. Mary’s [14]
[7] UTRGV 52 — 62 Valparaiso [10]
[2] Siena 53 — 72 Air Force [15]
I was secretly kinda hoping Detroit Mercy would beat Michigan for the memes. Alas, we’ll have to settle for Houston Christian surprisingly winning by a margin well outside of home court advantage range.
Columbia Regional
[1] VMI 67 — 61 George Washington [16]
[8] NJIT 78 — 63 Sacramento State [9]
[5] New Orleans 67 — 76 Campbell [12]
[4] Pacific 74 — 54 Eastern Michigan [13]
[6] LIU 70 — 73 Robert Morris [11]
[3] Maryland Eastern Shore 55 — 76 Oral Roberts [14]
[7] Northwestern State 57 — 77 Charleston Southern [10]
[2] IUPUI 67 — 80 Northern Arizona [15]
VMI was clearly the weakest 1-seed in this field—the North Carolina of Badness, if you will—so this isn’t nearly as shocking as Mississippi Valley State winning, but it’s still pretty shocking considering VMI’s only Division I win all year came against The Citadel.
So that’s half our 1-seeds down in the Round of 64. I wonder how long it’ll take us to lose the other two.
Round of 32
Ann Arbor Regional
[9] Navy 57 — 73 Louisville [16]
[4] Army 75 — 69 Incarnate Word [5]
[6] Central Arkansas 44 — 77 ULM [14]
[2] Cal Poly 74 — 78 Arkansas–Pine Bluff [10]
Okay, geez, fine! You can go home, ULM!
Morgantown Regional
[1] Coppin State 59 — 75 Prairie View A&M [8]
[5] Hampton 82 — 78 Southern Utah [13]
[3] Buffalo 63 — 58 Dartmouth [6]
[2] Florida A&M 77 — 66 Idaho [10]
Chaos reigns supreme here. The 2-seed and 3-seed both win at home, the former by a margin that suggests home court advantage was not even close to being a factor, while the 13 upsets the 5 on what is now a neutral court. Southern Utah was the at-large selection with the best efficiency metrics on the entire bracket, so seeing them lose their way to the Sorry Sixteen is stunning to me.
Corvallis Regional
[1] Detroit Mercy 67 — 49 William & Mary [8]
[12] DePaul 63 — 60 USC Upstate [13]
[3] Southeast Missouri 69 — 62 Alabama State [11]
[2] Siena 67 — 57 UTRGV [7]
There goes Detroit Mercy. Maybe two people will storm the court this time!
More upsets way outside of home court advantage range. The highest seeds just really don’t wanna go down in infamy, huh?
Columbia Regional
[9] Sacramento State 55 — 67 George Washington [16]
[5] New Orleans 61 — 67 Eastern Michigan [13]
[3] Maryland Eastern Shore 58 — 56 LIU [6]
[2] IUPUI 61 — 78 Northwestern State [7]
What is it with 13-seeds on this bracket? That’s three of them in the Sorry Sixteen. For comparison’s sake, just six 13-seeds in the men’s NCAA Tournament (and three in the women’s tournament) have reached the Sweet Sixteen all-time.
Let’s see if they’ve got any more juice left in ‘em.
Sorry Sixteen
Ann Arbor Regional
[5] Incarnate Word 68 — 71 Navy [9]
[2] Cal Poly 75 — 69 Central Arkansas [6]
Weird. Cal Poly had no issue losing on their home court, but now they get to play on a neutral and suddenly they’re winners. KenPom would eeeeever-so-slightly favor Cal Poly in that game anyway, as they’re #339 and Central Arkansas is #340. But Cal Poly all year has shown the ability to lose to bad teams like nobody’s business. They just couldn’t do it when the lights were brightest. (Dimmest?)
Morgantown Regional
[1] Coppin State 68 — 83 Southern Utah [13]
[6] Dartmouth 63 — 94 Idaho [10]
Now Coppin State—there’s a team that knows how to lose in big situations. They’re the only 1-seed left on the bracket, and they just easily handled the apparently super dangerous 13-seed.
Corvallis Regional
[8] William & Mary 64 — 77 USC Upstate [13]
[7] UTRGV 71 — 68 Alabama State [11]
I get the feeling this isn’t the Cinderella run William & Mary fans have been waiting generations for.
Columbia Regional
[9] Sacramento State 71 — 68 Eastern Michigan [13]
[2] IUPUI 54 — 71 LIU [6]
A 13-seed in the Errant Eight! A 13-seed has never reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament, men’s or women’s.4 Do they have a Futile Four run in ‘em?
Errant Eight
Ann Arbor Regional
[5] Incarnate Word 71 — 59 Central Arkansas [6]
I thought Mississippi Valley State was gonna escape this region easily; I can’t lie. It still kinda floors me that they won their way off the bracket as soon as possible.
Morgantown Regional
[1] Coppin State 64 — 76 Dartmouth [6]
Our last 1-seed makes it to the national semifinals! They still have IUPUI to worry about on the other side of the bracket, and it’s seeming more and more likely that those two are on a collision course for the Chumpionship.
Corvallis Regional
[8] William & Mary 77 — 50 Alabama State [11]
Any good chaotic tournament has the patented 11-seed run. Ours will continue for at least one more round.
Columbia Regional
[2] IUPUI 61 — 65 Eastern Michigan [13]
Eastern Michigan: thank you for your service, but please go home.
Futile Four
[2] IUPUI 67 — 58 Central Arkansas [6]
[1] Coppin State 64 — 67 Alabama State [11]
Hoo boy, more chaos in Louisville!
IUPUI beats Central Arkansas pretty handily to end their title run two losses short. Meanwhile, Coppin State leads for most of their game against Alabama State, only managing to hit the brakes at the very end to salvage the loss.
And so we’re down to two. Coppin State, the team that’s supposed to be here, and Central Arkansas, the team that isn’t. Who will be our ultimate 2024 March Badness Chumpion?
Let’s find out.
Chumpionship
[1] Coppin State 49 — 52 Central Arkansas [6]
It’s only fitting that the final game of this tournament is an affront to basketball. It’s even more fitting that, amid all of the chaos in the early rounds, the #2 overall seed is still the one that ends up taking home the trophy. Funny how that always works.
Congratulations to the Coppin State Eagles, our 2024 March Badness Chumpions!
Peripherals
Like last year, I’d like to end with some year-over-year statistics.
Repeat offenders
From 2023’s March Badness bracket, 29 teams (42.6%) returned to the 2024 edition. Additionally, 18 of this year’s teams (26.5%) were also on the 2022 bracket, meaning that they’ve qualified for all three years of March Badness.
Here are the 29 repeat offenders, with this year’s seed, last year’s seed, and—if applicable—2022’s seed in parentheses.
Mississippi Valley State (1 ← 2 ← 1)
Coppin State (1 ← 10)
VMI (1 ← 3)
IUPUI (2 ← 2 ← 1)
Florida A&M (2 ← 2)
Cal Poly (2 ← 13 ← 12)
Houston Christian (4 ← 3 ← 6)
Loyola (MD) (4 ← 8)
Incarnate Word (5 ← 6 ← 3)
Hampton (5 ← 4 ← 9)
New Orleans (5 ← 7)
LIU (6 ← 1)
Holy Cross (6 ← 6 ← 4)
Central Arkansas (6 ← 11 ← 12)
Manhattan (7 ← 12)
UTRGV (7 ← 15 ← 10)
NJIT (8 ← 5 ← 7)
William & Mary (8 ← 13 ← 5)
Coastal Carolina (9 ← 14 play-in)
Idaho (10 ← 14 ← 11)
Arkansas–Pine Bluff (10 ← 5 ← 2)
Charleston Southern (10 ← 12 ← 3)
Alabama State (11 ← 4 ← 9)
Eastern Illinois (12 ← 10 ← 2)
Eastern Michigan (13 ← 13 ← 13)
Elon (13 ← 5)
The Citadel (14 ← 11)
UTSA (15 ← 15 ← 8)
Louisville (16 ← 12)
Madness to Badness
Four of the 68 teams in this year’s March Badness field (5.9%) fell down here after reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2023.
Southeast Missouri (Badness 3 ← Madness 16 play-in)
Oral Roberts (Badness 14 ← Madness 12)
Missouri (Badness 16 play-in ← Madness 7)
West Virginia (Badness 16 play-in ← Madness 9)
Badness to Madness
Finally, ending on a high note, two teams from 2023’s March Badness field (2.9%) made it to the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
McNeese (Madness 12 ← Badness 6)
Saint Peter’s (Madness 15 ← Badness 9)
Thank you for reading, for joining me on this journey to crown a March Badness Chumpion, and for giving the low majors in your life some love. Enjoy the rest of March Madness!
Except for in the rare case when a postseason-ineligible team wins the conference tournament, a scenario handled differently by different conferences. Some give the bid to the tournament runner-up and some just default to the regular season champion.
Except for in the case of St. Thomas, whose transition period was set at five years because they jumped straight up from Division III to Division I instead of spending a few years at Division II first, as usually happens in that scenario.
Minus the home court advantage thing; they were in Columbus.
We’ve gotten a 15-seed in the Elite Eight, of course—2022 Saint Peter’s—but no 13-seed or 14-seed.
"I get the feeling this isn’t the Cinderella run William & Mary fans have been waiting generations for."
omg
Mississippi Valley State knocking off Louisville cracked me up 😂