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Daniel Wilco | NCAA.com | March 27, 2022

The lowest seeds to make the Men's Final Four, Elite 8 and Sweet 16

Loyola Chicago's road to the Final Four

Only five teams with double-digit seeds have made the Men's March Madness Final Four since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Here's the TL/DR version of some men's March Madness seed history:

  • 8 is the lowest seed to win men's March Madness (Villanova in 1985)
  • 11 is the lowest seed to make the men's Final Four (George Mason 2006; LSU 1986; VCU 2011; Loyola Chicago 2018; UCLA 2021)
  • 15 is the lowest seed to make the men's Elite Eight (Saint Peter's 2022)
  • 15 is the lowest seed to make the men's Sweet 16 (Saint Peter's 2022; Florida Golf Coast 2013)

The lowest seed to make the Final Four is a No. 11. It has happened five times, most recently in 2021.

The highest seed to ever make the championship is an 8, which has happened twice. The first came in the first NCAA tournament under the modern format, when 8-seed Villanova beat powerhouse 1-seed Georgetown for the 1985 championship.

Then 2014 gave us the highest total seed value for a championship game as 7-seed UConn took down 8-seed Kentucky for the title.

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