Has a No. 16 seed ever made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men's tournament? Here's the answer
It’s been nearly 40 years since the NCAA men’s basketball tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, and there have been plenty of massive upsets by lower-seeded teams in the time since.
However, one thing that hasn’t happened yet is the alignment of a No. 16 seed playing in the Sweet 16. Going into the 2024 tournament, the lowest seed to ever make the Sweet 16 remains No. 15, which has happened four times, including once in each of the last three years.
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In fact, 16-seeds rarely even make it to the second round of the tournament, as that’s happened just twice: Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023 and UMBC in 2018. Both put up a fight, losing by single digits, but that’s the closest a No. 16 has come to the Sweet 16.