What is the Most Common Seed to Win March Madness?

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What is the Most Common Seed to Win March Madness?

Author: Devin Erickson-Sheehy | Last Updated: February 6, 2024

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There are few more exciting moments in the sports calendar year than filling out a March Madness bracket.

One useful tool for making March Madness bracket predictions is finding which seeds have had the most historical success.

So, which seed has won the most NCAA Tournaments?

March Madness Bracket

Unsurprisingly, the most common seed to win the Men’s March Madness Tournament is the 1 seed.

Since the NCAA Tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, there have been 37 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournaments. The 1 seed has won the Tournament 24 times during that span amounting to an overwhelming 65% clip.

Other March Madness champions shake out as follows:

Seed NCAAM TitlesOverall Percentage
1 24 65%
2 5 14%
3 4 11%
4 1 3%
5 0 0%
6 1 3%
7 1 3%
8 1 3%

As you can see, 1 seeds have dominated the proceedings, but 2 seeds (5) and 3 seeds (4) have combined to capture a total of nine NCAAM Titles.

Here are some other March Madness betting areas of note:

  • No seed outside of the top 3 has won the NCAA Tournament more than once
  • While 4,6,7 and 8 seeds have all won the Tournament, 5 seeds have never done so
  • The lowest-seeded team to ever win March Madness is the 8-seeded Villanova Wildcats in 1985.

If you are looking to use betting apps during March Madness in addition to filling out a bracket, it’s well worth keeping these trends in mind.

Devin Erickson-Sheehy

Devin is a diehard New York sports fan and betting expert. He supplies a wealth of knowledge about everything online gambling, providing readers with up-to-date tracking on the latest trends, industry news, and betting offers.