Each season, the NCAA Tournament provides high-flying dunks, incredible comebacks, and shocking upsets. One of the great draws of March Madness is the opportunity to watch smaller schools take on powerhouse programs with the chance of pulling off a once-in-a-lifetime upset.
Though we don’t see a surprising, bracket busting upset every year, there have been more than 30 instances of lower-seeded underdogs knocking off highly-ranked teams in the modern era of the tournament.
To determine the greatest upsets in March Madness history, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data from the NCAA. Games were ranked on the greatest disparity in the seeds of the winning and losing teams from all tournament games since 1985, the year in which the tournament expanded to 64 teams. Appearances that were vacated due to NCAA sanctions were not considered.
Though uncommon, these big upsets are not unheard of. Since 1985, 22 different No. 14 seeds upset a No. 3 seed in the first round, giving them a 15.3% win percentage (though one of these recent upsets was later vacated due to NCAA infractions).
Upsets featuring a No. 15 seed knocking off a No. 2 seed are much more rare, and only one No. 16 seed has ever beaten a top seeded team. These upsets are all the more impressive when you consider the disparity in talent that is often on display in these matchups. As long as the favored teams can avoid upsets, they typically enjoy blowout wins over their opening-round opponents. These are the biggest blowouts in sports history.
Most of the upsets on this list look similar on paper – a large school from a Power Five conference that has put together a strong regular season and earned a high seed losing in the tournament’s first full round to a smaller school with a less established basketball program. These smaller schools occasionally have one future superstar like Steve Nash to help propel them to victory.
#14 Little Rock vs. #3 Notre Dame
> Year: 1986
> Score: 90-83
#14 Cleveland St. vs. #3 Indiana
> Year: 1986
> Score: 83-79
#14 Austin Peay vs. #3 Illinois
> Year: 1987
> Score: 68-67
#14 Murray St. vs. #3 North Carolina St.
> Year: 1988
> Score: 78-75
#14 Siena vs. #3 Stanford
> Year: 1989
> Score: 80-78
#14 UNI vs. #3 Missouri
> Year: 1990
> Score: 74-71
#14 Xavier vs. #3 Nebraska
> Year: 1991
> Score: 89-84
#14 East Tenn. vs. #3 Arizona
> Year: 1992
> Score: 87-80
#14 Weber St. vs. #3 Michigan St.
> Year: 1995
> Score: 79-72
#14 Old Dominion vs. #3 Villanova
> Year: 1995
> Score: 89-81
#14 Chattanooga vs. #3 Georgia
> Year: 1997
> Score: 73-70
#14 Richmond vs. #3 South Carolina
> Year: 1998
> Score: 62-61
#14 Weber St. vs. #3 North Carolina
> Year: 1999
> Score: 76-74
#14 Bucknell vs. #3 Kansas
> Year: 2005
> Score: 64-63
#14 Northwestern St. vs. #3 Iowa
> Year: 2006
> Score: 64-63
#14 Ohio vs. #3 Georgetown
> Year: 2010
> Score: 97-83
#14 Harvard vs. #3 New Mexico
> Year: 2013
> Score: 68-62
#14 Mercer vs. #3 Duke
> Year: 2014
> Score: 78-71
#14 Georgia St. vs. #3 Baylor
> Year: 2015
> Score: 57-56
#14 Abilene Christian vs. #3 Texas
> Year: 2021
> Score: 53-52
#14 UAB vs. #3 Iowa St.
> Year: 2015
> Score: 60-59
#15 Richmond vs. #2 Syracuse
> Year: 1991
> Score: 73-69
#15 Santa Clara vs. #2 Arizona
> Year: 1993
> Score: 64-61
#15 Coppin St. vs. #2 South Carolina
> Year: 1997
> Score: 78-65
#15 Hampton vs. #2 Iowa St.
> Year: 2001
> Score: 58-57
#15 Lehigh vs. #2 Duke
> Year: 2012
> Score: 75-70
#15 Norfolk St. vs. #2 Missouri
> Year: 2012
> Score: 86-84
#15 FGCU vs. #2 Georgetown
> Year: 2013
> Score: 78-68
#15 Middle Tenn. vs. #2 Michigan St.
> Year: 2016
> Score: 90-81
#15 Oral Roberts vs. #2 Ohio St.
> Year: 2021
> Score: 75-72
#16 UMBC vs. #1 Virginia
> Year: 2018
> Score: 74-54