2017 Bracket Busters



In the theme of this website, I thought I'd rank the teams that were responsible for busting up the most brackets. These are the Bracket Busters. You can probably think of a number of factors that'll encapsulate a bracket buster, but in a nutshell it's a team that causes your bracket to be tossed in the trash. Xavier knocked out Maryland, Arizona, and Florida State. That's some serious damage. Well, below I'll explain why some of the bracket busters are ranked where they are.

So you know, I'll mention stats specific to our bracket challenge, but for the most part when I'm speaking stats regarding bracket busters (in this column), I'm referring to online stats reported for the masses that participated in bracket challenges. So when I say a team trashed 13% of brackets predicting Villanova all the way, I'm not just referring to the 95 entries in our bracket challenge. Although I did find some of our stats match the national average.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this delicious, little, statistical insight.


NUMBER 1: SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS

Our top spot belongs to 7-seed South Carolina. They've put together a magical run to reach their 1st ever Final 4, and they've left a path of destruction in their wake.

At the time of this writing, SC had advanced to the Final 4 and knocked out 2, 3, 4, and 10 seeds along the way. That's impressive. Combined - Duke, Baylor, Florida, and Marquette - account for approximately 13.5% of all predicted national champions in everyones brackets. Putting that in perspective, when SC knocked out Duke, they not only knocked out a huge majority that had Duke advancing, but 12% of all brackets had Duke going all the way. That's a big bracket buster right there.

Update: The Gamecocks were beat by 1-seed Gonzaga.

NUMBER 2: WISCONSIN BADGERS

If you're filling out a bracket, that 1 next to a team's name is gold. When people saw Wisconsin had to face a 1-seed (and the defending champion at that) in the 2nd round, most opted to take that 1-seed.

In our challenge, 93% of brackets had Villanova over Wisconsin, but more importantly, 14 had them all the way, which is the 2nd highest total of any team taken to win it all. That means 13% of entries had Nova all the way (which is on part with the national percentage). That percent is almost as high a percentage as all the teams South Carolina's beat, so you could make a case Wisconsin deserves the top spot, but Wisconsin didn't advance beyond the Elite 8 and - while Wisconsin's an 8-seed - SC feels like a bigger sleeper. Perception is reality.


NUMBER 3: XAVIER MUSKETEERS

A lot of people figure Xavier's the #1 bracket buster. You could make a case, because nobody in our challenge picked Xavier over Arizona. But we have the Pac-12 bias for many participants. When looking at national figures, Arizona was picked in 6.8 percent of all brackets to go all the way, which is a much smaller percentage than Villanova and Duke, so for that reason alone, Xavier comes in 3rd. Wins over Florida State and Maryland didn't have enough of an impact to vault Xavier any higher than #3. But they made an impressive run, knocking out 2, 3, and 6 seeds, which is pretty solid, considering they were 9-9 in the Big East and many felt they didn't even deserve an at-large bid. Thanks for nothing Xavier. You're definitely a bracket buster and - as an 11 seed - you were the lowest team to advance the furthest, making you the biggest darkhorse. If not for South Carolina's magical run, this might be the biggest story of the tournament.


NUMBER 4: OREGON DUCKS

You probably wouldn't expect to see a 3-seed on this list, but Oregon is the 2nd team to knock out a 1-seed. When they took out Kansas, that eliminated 11.1% of all brackets nationwide that had Kansas going all the way, which is 4th highest. Of the 67 people who had Oregon or Kansas to the Elite 8, 25% had Oregon moving on, and Kansas was picked by 13 people to go all the way, which is 14%. That is actually a large percentage. UNC was picked by 20% of us to go all the way and that's the biggest group. Along with Kansas, Oregon beat Michigan, URI, and Iona. All combined, Oregon knocked out 12.4 percent of predicted champions across the nation, making them the 4th highest ranked bracket buster.


NUMBER 5: MICHIGAN WOLVERINES

Michigan came into the NCAA tournament after beating Purdue and Wisconsin in the B10 tournament. They won the Big 10 title for the first time since 1998. They were given a 7-seed and when they knocked out the Louisville Cardinals, that was only predicted on 12% of brackets. Louisville was only picked by 3% of the nation to go all the way, but the fact that a 7 beat a 2, and 20% of brackets had Louisville advancing to the Elite 8? Well, that's a pretty good bracket buster. Had they beat Oregon, they wouldn't be sitting in this spot on the list.