March Madness 2025: Men's Bracket Features No 1st-Round Upsets of Top-4 Seeds

For at least the first round of the NCAA tournament, it was a rough time for lower-seeded teams.

This year marked the first time since 2017 that the top four seeds in each region advanced to the second round.

Beyond the chalkiness at the top of the brackets, teams that were favored by at least eight points are 14-0 straight up so far.

If you go all the way down to include teams seeded five and six, the only top 24 overall seeds in the tournament field to lose are Clemson (No. 18 overall), Memphis (No. 20) and Missouri (No. 23).

The biggest upset by seeding so far was McNeese State's 69-67 victory over Clemson.

In addition to each of the top 16 teams advancing to the second round, their games weren't all that close. The four No. 1 seeds won by an average of 32 points. Alabama and Texas A&M were the only top-four seeds that won by fewer than 10 points.

The NCAA tournament has been chalk-heavy the past two years. Even though there were first-round upsets last year, highlighted by Oakland's win over Kentucky, the top eight overall seeds wound up advancing to the Sweet 16.

Depending on how this weekend's games play out, this year could be the first time since 2019 that at least 14 of the top 16 overall seeds advance to the Sweet 16.

Since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the only year in which all four No. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four was 2008.

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Things should get more interesting starting with the round of 32. Auburn, which lost three of its final four games coming into the tournament, looked vulnerable at points against Alabama State in the first round and will now take on a Creighton team that looked very impressive against Louisville.

Alabama struggled against Robert Morris on Friday going into a matchup with Saint Mary's.

Hopefully there are some more upsets along the way since that's a big part of what makes March Madness so fun to watch as a fan, but the top teams in the country have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack over the course of this season.