Anyone who picks all #1 seeds in his March madness bracket this year needs to get his head checked. Indiana stayed at #1 in the polls despite losing to the unranked Illinois. Thus ended a stretch of five straight weeks in which the top ranked team went down. Now the #1 team in the country is just whoever hasn’t lost lately.
And if these trends hold, your march madness bracket will be busted early. Remember this when you’re ready to bet on march madness, anything goes this year.
Maybe this will be the year a #16 finally beats a #1? So who do you got to win it all? Indiana and Michigan could both be #1 seeds when the bracket is unveiled on Selection Sunday. But there are a few more powerful teams from their league Minnesota and Illinois could beat anyone in the country on a given night, but also fall flat and yield a head-scratching loss.
Michigan just got absolutely hammered by their bitter rivals in East Lansing, and you know that Izzo is “Mr. March.” They could make it all the way to April. And Wisconsin almost always make it to the second weekend.
Looking at the sport’s power rankings, could this be the year for a mid-major? Another reason this March madness bracket will be so mad is that traditional powers are reeling. Kansas is firmly in the tournament, but they’ve lost three in a row. And we can’t say for sure that the Kentucky and North Carolina will be dancing come March.