Cinderella, time to go home


Even Cinderella needs to leave the party early
The party continues for the rest
From marchmadman Updated 03/25/24, 12:30am
The Cinderella story is what makes March Madness so special. No other sport gives the little guy a chance to win a Championship like college basketball does. There have been some very magical moments many before our memories. But the expansion of the Tournament in 1985 to 64 teams and then ultimately to the current 68 teams in 2011 allows for more teams to be invited to the dance (although those more teams are usually from the power conferences). These additional teams make for some great stories and upsets especially during the first weekend. That's where our Cinderella dreams start to grow! Only to be squished like a rotten pumpkin! Cinderella must go home before midnight, and the Cinderella teams get sent home before the Sweet 16. When you add the seed values of the Sweet 16 teams, the lowest possible sum is 40 (seeds 1, 2, 3, & 4 all advance). This would be considered an "all-chalk" Sweet 16. The higher the number gets, the more upsets there are. The lowest aggregate number ever recorded is 49, which happened in both 2009 and 2019. The highest possible sum for a grouping of Sweet 16 teams is 232. This will never happen, because it would mean that the No. 13, No. 14, No. 15, and No. 16 seed came out of each region. In fact, the Sweet 16 seed aggregate has never broken 100. Prior to 2021, the highest Sweet 16 seed aggregate was 89, set in 1986, the year after the field expanded to 64 teams. In 2021, the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 set a remarkable record for the highest aggregate seed count of 94. That year, the Sweet 16 contained double digits seeds of #11 Syracuse, #11 UCLA, #12 Oregon State, and #15 Oral Roberts (the only true Cinderella of the bunch). The average Sweet 16 aggregate over the years of the Tournament: 71. This year's Sweet 16 aggregate: 53. That's a pretty chalky Sweet 16.

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