I previously dabbled in relatively useless Super Bowl facts, making this transition to unhelpful information about an amateur sport rather natural. Here’s some March Madness trivia, numbers style. (The focus will be on the men’s side. If you have no idea what’s going on, click here.)
1891
The year James Naismith invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts. (The Canadian later founded the basketball program at the University of Kansas.)
1906
The year the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was formed. Initially known as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, the present name was adopted in 1910.
1939
The year of the first NCAA men’s basketball tournament, consisting of eight teams. Oregon defeated Ohio State for the championship, though the National Invitation Tournament (NIT)—founded one year earlier by a separate intercollegiate basketball association—was considered more prestigious well into the 1950s. (The first NCAA women’s basketball tournament was held in 1982.)
1982
The year famed announcer Brent Musburger started using the phrase March Madness to refer to the NCAA tournament. As the Illinois High School Association had been using the same terminology for many years to refer to its state high school basketball tournament, a bit of legal wrangling ensued, eventually resulting in a dual-use trademark.
1985
The year the tournament expanded to 64 teams. Since then, the field has increased to 68, necessitating four play-in games to get down to the more convenient 64 (that allows for four regions with teams seeded one through 16 and a simple single-elimination format).
2008
The only year that all four number one seeds made the Final Four.
2
The number of times a 16 seed has beaten a one seed out of 156 chances.
11
The lowest-seeded team to make the Final Four. The feat has been accomplished six times, though no 11 seed has ever won a Final Four game.
8
The lowest-seeded team to win the NCAA tournament. That was Villanova in 1985.
61
The number of NCAA tournament appearances by the University of Kentucky, the most of any school. The top five is rounded out by North Carolina (53), Kansas (52), UCLA (50), and Duke (46).
21
The number of Final Four appearances by the University of North Carolina, just ahead of the other usual suspects—UCLA (19), Kentucky (17), Duke (17), and Kansas (16).
11 (again)
The number of championships won by the winningest school, UCLA. Kentucky has eight; North Carolina and Connecticut six; Duke and Indiana five; Kansas four; and Louisville and Villanova three. Here’s a more complete list.
6
The minimum number of champions you would have a hard time naming on March Madness trivia night—Wyoming (1943), Holy Cross (1947), City College of New York (1950), La Salle (1954), San Francisco (1955 and 1956), and University of Texas at El Paso (1966).
1 (again)
The number of coaches who have won both the NCAA tournament and an NBA championship. Larry Brown won with the University of Kansas in 1988 and the Detroit Pistons in 2004.
1940
The year of the first televised college basketball game, opening the door to the following number.
19.6 billion
The amount in US dollars paid by television networks for the rights to broadcast the NCAA tournament from 2011-2032, explaining what comes next.
90
The approximate percent of the NCAA’s annual revenue of $1.28 billion that is attributable to revenue generated by March Madness.
68 million
An estimate of the number of Americans betting on the 2023 NCAA tournament.
17 billion
A guess in US dollars of the losses incurred in 2023 by American employers due to decreased worker productivity during March Madness. This number is up for debate, but you get the point.
0
The ranking on a scale of one to 10 that I give “One Shining Moment,” the cheesy song played by television networks at the end of the NCAA tournament. Have a listen, though feel free to click stop immediately.
I recommend either substituting the following instrumental track or just ending the telecast a few minutes early.
Moving forward, the plan is to stick to less useless topics than March Madness trivia. Note that I didn’t say useful.
(This article was updated on April 9, 2024.)
