Brackets have locked. The picks are in. And the team chosen most often to win the title in our Bracket Challenge Game is… Villanova.
Somewhat a surprise here, as the Wildcats were the second overall seed, behind Virginia. But the Cavaliers' recent injury news — losing De'Andre Hunter for the tournament to a broken wrist — may have swayed couch bracketologists.
The upshot was 14.6 percent of the millions of BCG brackets we looked at riding the Wildcats to what would be their second title in three years.
| Team | Picked to win title |
|---|---|
| Villanova | 14.60% |
| Virginia | 13.73% |
| Duke | 9.14% |
| Kansas | 7.89% |
| North Carolina | 6.98% |
This year's top overall seed, Virginia, is the second most popular championship pick, with 13.73 percent of BCG users taking the Cavaliers to win their first-ever championship.
The Cavaliers finished as the AP No. 1, and were the overall No. 1 seed in the tournament.
But only one team that finished AP No. 1 in the past 18 years has won the title — Kentucky in 2012. Last year, AP No. 1 (and also the top seed overall), Villanova, was picked to win the title in 12.25 percent of brackets, but lost in the second round.
Last year’s champion, North Carolina, came in fifth place, with 6.98 percent of the picks.
Here is every team in the tournament, ranked 1-68 in terms of how many BCG users picked them to win the championship:
| Rank | Team | Picked to win title |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Villanova | 14.60% |
| 2 | Virginia | 13.73% |
| 3 | Duke | 9.14% |
| 4 | Kansas | 7.98% |
| 5 | North Carolina | 6.98% |
| 6 | Mich. St. | 6.45% |
| 7 | Arizona | 4.10% |
| 8 | Xavier | 3.48% |
| 9 | Michigan | 2.92% |
| 10 | Purdue | 2.16% |
| 11 | Kentucky | 2.10% |
| 12 | Gonzaga | 1.87% |
| 13 | Cincinnati | 1.33% |
| 14 | Tennessee | 0.63% |
| 15 | West Virginia | 0.54% |
| 16 | Ohio St. | 0.47% |
| 17 | Wichita State | 0.38% |
| 18 | Texas Tech | 0.34% |
| 19 | Oklahoma | 0.32% |
| 20 | Alabama | 0.29% |
| 21 | Auburn | 0.27% |
| 22 | Florida | 0.26% |
| 23 | Penn | 0.22% |
| 24 | Clemson | 0.19% |
| 25 | Missouri | 0.17% |
| 26 | Syracuse | 0.16% |
| 27 | Miami (Fla.) | 0.15% |
| 28 | Butler | 0.13% |
| T29 | UMBC | 0.12% |
| T29 | Texas | 0.12% |
| T29 | Arkansas | 0.12% |
| T29 | NC State | 0.12% |
| 33 | Houston | 0.10% |
| 34 | Virginia Tech | 0.09% |
| T35 | Rhode Island | 0.08% |
| T35 | Radford | 0.08% |
| T37 | Loyola Chicago | 0.07% |
| T37 | TCU | 0.07% |
| T37 | Texas A&M | 0.07% |
| T37 | Kansas St. | 0.07% |
| T37 | Providence | 0.07% |
| T37 | Texas Southern | 0.07% |
| T43 | Florida State | 0.06% |
| T43 | Seton Hall | 0.06% |
| T43 | Creighton | 0.06% |
| T43 | St. Bonaventure | 0.06% |
| T47 | San Diego State | 0.05% |
| T47 | Davidson | 0.05% |
| T49 | Nevada | 0.04% |
| T49 | South Dakota St. | 0.04% |
| T49 | Marshall | 0.04% |
| T49 | Iona | 0.04% |
| T53 | Buffalo | 0.03% |
| T53 | Georgia State | 0.03% |
| T53 | New Mexico St. | 0.03% |
| T53 | Lipscomb | 0.03% |
| T53 | Montana | 0.03% |
| T58 | Bucknell | 0.02% |
| T58 | CSU Fullerton | 0.02% |
| T58 | Charleston | 0.02% |
| T58 | Murray State | 0.02% |
| T58 | SFA | 0.02% |
| T58 | Wright State | 0.02% |
| 64 | UNCG | 0.01% |
| T65 | Arizona St. | 0.00% |
| T65 | LIU Brooklyn | 0.00% |
| T65 | N.C. Central | 0.00% |
*These numbers don't add up to 100 percent. We rounded percentages and did not count brackets that did not pick a winning team.
NCAA Digital's Dan Jepperson and Mike Szahaj contributed to the reporting of this article.
