Before 2012, 2-seeds went 10 straight years without losing in the First Round. In the nine tournaments since that streak, we’ve seen five 2-seeds drop their first game. Is this the start of a new trend? Or a weird statistical anomaly? Who knows? Let’s see what happens this year!
Overall Performance
- 135 (of 144) advanced to the Second Round
- 91 went on to the Sweet 16
- 65 reached the Elite 8
- 29 reached the Final 4
- 13 made the championship game
- 5 won the tournament
Performance Over the Last 10 Years
- 35 (of 40) advanced to the Second Round
- 24 went on to the Sweet 16
- 17 reached the Elite 8
- 7 reached the Final 4
- 2 made it to the championship game, but only one of them won it
Bracket Performance History and Advice
- First Round: Only 9 (out of 144) 2-seeds have lost in the First Round. Interestingly, 5 of those upsets happened within the last 9 tournaments. It’s still probably too rare of an occurrence to take the risk of picking an upset here.
- Second Round: Chances are pretty good (84%) that at least one 2-seed will lose in the Second Round. There’s a 70% chance only 2 or 3 of them will advance to the Sweet 16.
- Sweet 16: Another 2-seed will probably lose in this round. There have only been two tournaments where none of the 2-seeds advanced past the Sweet 16.
- Elite 8: There is a 59% chance at least one 2-seed advances past the Elite 8.
- Final 4: 29 2-seeds have reached the Final 4, and 13 wound up advancing to the Final.
- Final: Of the 13 2-seeds to reach the Final, 5 of them won.
Record in the Second Round
- vs 7-seeds: 57-26
- vs 10-seeds: 34-18
Feats of Strength
- 2016 Villanova was the last team to win the tournament as a 2-seed.
- The previous 2-seed winner was Connecticut, 12 years earlier, in 2004.
- All four 2-seeds advanced to the Elite 8 twice:
- 1995 – Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Arkansas
- 1996 – Georgetown, Wake Forest, Cincinnati, and Kansas