March Madness: Lowest seeds to make the Final Four

Whether it’s one-seeds going home early or low-majors proving Cinderella is alive and well, this March has been the maddest in recent memory. With more history potentially on the horizon, it begs the question: what are the lowest seeds to ever make the Final Four?

In school, I was always a big history buff (not to brag, but I earned A’s in every history class I took). As a journalist, I’ve always had a soft spot for underdogs. It tracks then that a dive into past Final Four history would be right up my alley. And is there some serious history to dive into.

Let’s start on the men’s side.

Lowest seed to make Final Four in men’s March Madness

In 1985, before the ever-unpopular New Coke debuted, the NCAA was busy rolling out a far more successful idea: the expansion of the NCAA Tournament field to 64 teams. Since then, only five double-digit seeds have made it to the Final Four.

No. 11 is the lowest-ever seed to reach the national semifinals, which happened most recently in 2021 when UCLA lost on a Jalen Suggs buzzer-beater. LSU was the first to do it in 1986, while George Mason (2006), VCU (2011) and Loyola-Chicago (2018) have all joined in on the fun.

Currently, 15-seed Princeton is the lowest seed still alive on the men’s side. As much as I hate to rain on the Tigers’ parade, history isn’t on their side. A 15-seed has never advanced past the Elite Eight and only one team seeded that low has made it to the national quarterfinals — the Saint Peter’s Peacocks, last season.

Lowest seed to make Final Four in women’s March Madness

On the women’s side, low seeds have even less historical ground to stand on.

Thanks to a stunning 16-over-1 upset by Harvard in 1998, the door was thrust open for chaos in the West Region and No. 9 seed Arkansas was the beneficiary. The Razorbacks were just .500 in SEC play that season, but still notched wins over No. 5 seed Kansas and No. 2 seed Duke. They eventually fell in the Final Four to a No. 1 seed Tennessee team that only went 39-0, went wire-to-wire as the nation’s number one and won the national championship.

Almost 24 full years later, another No. 9 seed has their sights set on repeating history — the Miami (FL) Hurricanes.

The ‘Canes are fresh off an upset of the No. 1 seed Indiana, staving off a furious Hoosier comeback and earning The U’s second win over Indiana in as many days (cue the ‘Hoosier Daddy’ Twitter memes). If Miami can get past Villanova and their walking-bucket Maddy Siegrist, they will face the winner of No. 3 seed LSU and No. 4 seed Utah.

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