Has an 8 seed ever won the NCAA tournament? Exploring the trends and patterns of past winners and their seeds

Over the years, the NCAA tournament has featured multiple Cinderella stories, the journeys of teams that weren't supposed to win but did anyway. While a lot of these teams didn't win it all eventually, their runs remain among the most legendary in tournament history.

It's safe to say that to win a national championship in March Madness, a team has to be really, really good (and seeded highly as a result). But what about the lower-seeded teams? Do they have a chance?

Well, history hasn't been kind to lower-seeded teams in the NCAA tournament, but, sometimes, things really just click.

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Has an 8 seed ever won the NCAA tournament?

Yes. Only one 8-seed team has ever won it all, and it was the 1985 Villanova Wildcats.

To this day, their underdog run is the most impressive upset NCAA men's basketball has ever seen. It also happened during a year when the tournament had expanded to 64 teams, which makes their run even more incredible (via Bleacher Nation).

Coached by Rollie Massimino, the Wildcats survived by the skin of their teeth every single time. None of their wins in that year's tournament were by double digits, with their biggest being an eight-point victory over #7 North Carolina in the Southeast Regional Final.

Eventually, they once again barely survived the mighty Georgetown Hoyas, 66-64, despite the Hoyas having the legendary Patrick Ewing. None of the players on Villanova's side of the ball were exactly good in the pros in their own right too.

That further makes this championship win the greatest underdog run of all time in college basketball.

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The lowest seeds to win the NCAA tournament

Number 1 seeds are ranked like that for a reason. In NCAA tournament history, 24 top-seeded teams have won a national championship. But things aren't as kind when you go down from 2-seeds and further down the ladder.

Only five 2-seed teams have ever won, a remarkable dropoff from 1 seeds. Further down, only four 3-seeds have done it, a couple of 4-seeds, and one team each for 6, 7 and 8-seeds. Outside these teams, no other lower-seeded teams have ever won it all.

Underdog teams can still go deep into the tournament, though. Here's a TLDR courtesy of NCAA.com:

• 11 is the lowest seed to make Final Four (LSU 1986; George Mason 2006; VCU 2011; Loyola Chicago 2018; UCLA 2021).
• 15 is the lowest seed to make Elite Eight (Saint Peter's 2022)
• 15 is the lowest seed to make Sweet 16 (Princeton 2023; Saint Peter's 2022; Oral Roberts 2021; Florida Golf Coast 2013)