Daniel Wilco | NCAA.com | August 5, 2019 How every seed performs in the NCAA men's DI basketball tournament Everything you need to know about March Madness Share While the NCAA tournament has existed since 1939, it wasn’t until 40 years after Oregon won the inaugural championship that full tournament seeding was introduced in 1979. Now, a team’s seed is one of the most telling pieces of information for every school in bracket. In theory, better seeds mean better teams, and an easier road to the championship. But do the numbers back that up? MORE NCAA TOURNAMENT STATS: Teams with the most NCAA tournament No. 1 seeds For the most part, yes. We looked at 41 years of historical data taken from the official NCAA record books to break down how every seed performs in March. Here are some quick takeaways from the data: Unsurprisingly, no seed is as successful as the 1 seed. They have 24 of the 41 national championships since 1979. The only other seed with more than five is the 2 seed, which has seven. The 1 seeds also have won 99.3 percent of their first-round matchups, and 78.6 percent of their 659 NCAA tournament games since 1979 — better than any other seed. Somewhat surprisingly, 5 seeds are an anomaly. They’re the only top 8 seed that hasn’t won a national championship, and they actually win fewer overall games (52.7 percent) than 6 seeds (53.4 percent). Of the 164 teams that have been a 5 seed since 1979, only three have made it to the championship game: Florida in 2000, Indiana in 2002, and Butler in 2010. All lost. While 9, 10, and 11 seeds have all survived until the Final Four, no seed worse than 8 has ever appeared in a championship matchup. The lowest seed to ever win the national championship came in 1985, when 8-seed Villanova took down Patrick Ewing and 1-seed Georgetown. MORE CBB RECORDS: The winningest college basketball coaches of all time Let’s take a look at how each seed does in three of the most important areas of the tournament: HOW SEEDS PERFORM IN THE OPENING ROUND This data only includes games starting in 1985, when the NCAA tournament expanded to its modern 64-team format. It also does not include any games before the first round. SEEDS WINS LOSSES WIN PCT #1 vs. #16 139 1 99.3% #2 vs. #15 132 8 94.3% #3 vs. #14 119 21 85.0% #4 vs. #13 111 29 79.3% #5 vs. #12 90 50 64.3% #6 vs. #11 88 52 62.9% #7 vs. #10 85 55 60.7% #8 vs. #9 68 72 48.6% (Tap here to see the above chart if it's not visible on your mobile device) OVERALL RECORDS OF EVERY SEED This data looks back all the way to 1979, and includes all NCAA tournament games, including the First Four. Seed Wins Losses win pct #1 518 141 78.6% #2 369 157 70.2% #3 285 159 64.2% #4 236 163 59.1% #5 184 165 52.7% #6 186 162 53.4% #7 147 163 47.4% #8 122 163 42.8% #9 97 165 37.0% #10 103 164 38.6% #11 105 173 37.8% #12 78 163 32.4% #13 36 141 20.3% #14 24 141 14.5% #15 9 140 6.0% #16 28 167 14.4% HOW SEEDS HAVE DONE IN THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP No seed higher than 8 has ever been in the championship game. The only seed that is undefeated in championship play is the 7 seed, thanks to UConn beating 8-seed Kentucky for the title in the 2014 tournament. Seed Wins Losses Appearances WIN PCT 1 22 12 34 64.7% 2 5 8 13 38.5% 3 4 7 11 36.4% 4 1 2 3 33.3% 5 0 3 3 0% 6 1 1 2 50% 7 1 0 1 100% 8 1 2 3 33.3% Five new members appointed to NCAA DI men's basketball committee The DI men's basketball committee will feature five new members for the 2021-22 season. The roster expands to 12 for the first time. READ MORE March Madness 365 with Andy Katz podcast NCAA.com's Andy Katz covers the newsmakers in college basketball all year long. New episodes every Tuesday. READ MORE 10 men's basketball programs who were big winners after a flurry of roster moves Here are Andy Katz's top 10 winners, based on which players returned from the portal to their previous school, which schools added a talented player or two from the portal and which players elected to return to school rather than declare for the NBA draft. READ MORE