Who is the first 16 seed to beat 1? Looking at previous March Madness records

March Madness always brings with it some insane moments that continue to be remembered. That includes the standard David and Goliath stories, tales of teams that weren't supposed to win but did.

These stories are nothing new in basketball, but there's a sort of mystique about underdog stories when they happen in college hoops. In the case of the NCAA, the lowest-seeded team (#16) always plays the #1 seed at the start of the tournament. The #1 teams tend to win, but sometimes, the basketball gods have different ideas.

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When a 16 seed beat the 1 in March Madness?

There are two such instances in March Madness history. Let's have a look.

UMBC beats Virginia, 74-54, 2018

The first time in NCAA history that a 16 seed beat a 1 was in 2018, when the UMBC Retrievers beat the Virginia Cavaliers.

It wasn't even a close game at all, with the Retrievers winning by 20, 74-54, to advance to the next round. At the time, the upset was one of the greatest in college hoops canon:

The Virginia team ended the regular season at 31-3, winning most of their games by double digits.

Their other two losses in the season were also by single-digits too, so for them to lose by 20 in the postseason against a 16 seed was one for the books. That isn't to detract from the Retrievers, who were a good team, too, finishing the season 25-11.

Fairleigh Dickinson beats Purdue, 63-58, 2023

Next up, 2022-2023 National Player of the Year Zach Edey and #1 Purdue faced #16 Fairleigh Dickinson.

An insane 97 percent of brackets that year picked the Boilermakers to advance, but they didn't, losing to the Knights in thrilling fashion, 63-58. They survived a monstrous 21-point, 15-rebound performance from Edey while also being the visibly much shorter team:

The result is often regarded as the greatest upset in NCAA men's basketball history, considering how Fairleigh Dickinson had all the odds going against them.

They headed into the game ranked dead last in the nation, at 68th. They were still picked for the Northeast Conference's automatic bid despite losing the conference championship game because conference champion Merrimack was bumped down to D2 status.

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A brief history of 16 vs 1 seeds in the NCAA

Overall, 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament are 150-2 against 16 seeds (via NCAA). So it's safe to say that if a team is ranked the best in the nation, they advance to the next round.

However, the history of 16 seeds vs 1 seeds does not end there. Here are other immensely impressive facts about this matchup that's worth another look:

• Only one game has been decided by a single-possession, and that was the 1996 matchup between Purdue and Western Carolina. The Boilermakers won 73-71.
• The highest scoring game was in 1987, when UNC beat Penn 113-82 to advance.
• The lowest combined score in a 1 vs. 16 game is 99 points, which has happened twice. The first time was in 1989 when Georgetown beat Princeton 50-49 (the only other single-possession 1 vs 16 game in history), while the other happened in 2008 when UCLA demolished Mississippi Valley State, 70-29.
• The biggest blowout in the matchup's history was in 1998, when Kansas absolutely bodied Prairie View A&M, 110-52.