Of the millions of NCAA brackets entered into the Capital One Bracket Challenge Game, only 54 managed to pick the Final Four correctly, choosing Loyola Chicago, Michigan, Villanova and Kansas to make it to San Antonio.
By beating Kansas State, 78-62, Loyola Chicago became just the fourth 11 seed to make it to the Final Four.
None of the previous three made it to the championship game:
| Year | Team | Final Four Opponent | Score | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | (11) LSU | (2) Louisville | 88-77 | Loss |
| 2006 | (11) George Mason | (3) Florida | 73-58 | Loss |
| 2011 | (11) VCU | (8) Butler | 70-62 | Loss |
The trip to San Antonio marks the Ramblers’ second-ever Final Four appearance. The first came in 1963, when Loyola Chicago stunned two-time defending champ Cincinnati in overtime. The 2018 Final Four is the 16th appearance for Kansas, the sixth for Michigan, and the fifth for Villanova.
| Team | Final Four apperances | Championships |
|---|---|---|
| Kansas | 15 (1940, 1952, 1953, 1957, 1971, 1974, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1993, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2012, 2018) | 3 (1952, 1988, 2008) |
| Michigan | 6 (1964, 1965, 1976, 1989, 2013, 2018) | 1 (1989) |
| Villanova | 5 (1939, 1985, 2009, 2016, 2018) | 2 (1985, 2016) |
| Loyola Chicago | 2 (1963, 2018) | 1 (1963) |
Loyola Chicago's Cinderella run has left many a broken bracket in its wake, and even the ones that survived didn't come out in one piece.
One of the two brackets tied for first place in BCG, "stirskull" only picked five of the Elite Eight correctly, but had a perfect Final Four. That bracket has Kansas beating Michigan in the championship game.
The bracket also goes to show how perfection in the early rounds isn’t nearly as important as some think. Stirskull missed five of 32 games in the first round, and six of 16 in the second. But if the Jayhawks take down the Wolverines for Kansas' fourth-ever title, Stirskull definitely won't remember that first weekend's impact.
