This repo contains JSON files for all the NCAA brackets from 1985–2017.
After #16 seed UMBC became the first to beat a #1 seed, I was curious what the highest sum of seeds in a game was. This was harder to find out than I expected, so I grabbed some data from Wikipedia and found the answer. It's 25!
(1989) 25: Minnesota 11 vs 14 Siena
(1991) 25: Eastern Michigan 12 vs 13 Penn State
(1991) 25: Temple 10 vs 15 Richmond
(1991) 25: Connecticut 11 vs 14 Xavier
(1992) 25: New Mexico State 12 vs 13 Southwest Louisiana
(1993) 25: George Washington 12 vs 13 Southern
(1997) 25: Texas 10 vs 15 Coppin State
(1998) 25: Washington 11 vs 14 Richmond
(1998) 25: Florida State 12 vs 13 Valparaiso
(2001) 25: Georgetown 10 vs 15 Hampton
(2001) 25: Gonzaga 12 vs 13 Indiana State
(2008) 25: Villanova 12 vs 13 Siena
(2008) 25: WKU 12 vs 13 San Diego
(2009) 25: Arizona 12 vs 13 Cleveland State
(2011) 25: Richmond 12 vs 13 Morehead State
(2012) 25: Xavier 10 vs 15 Lehigh
(2012) 25: South Florida 12 vs 13 Ohio
(2013) 25: Mississippi 12 vs 13 La Salle
(2014) 25: Tennessee 11 vs 14 Mercer
(2015) 25: UCLA 11 vs 14 UAB
(2016) 25: Syracuse 10 vs 15 Middle Tennessee
(2018) 25: UMBC 16 vs 9 Kansas State
(1997) 24: Chattanooga 14 vs 10 Providence
(1993) 22: Temple 7 vs 15 Santa Clara
(2012) 22: Florida 7 vs 15 Norfolk State
(2013) 22: Wichita State 9 vs 13 La Salle
(2013) 22: San Diego State 7 vs 15 Florida Gulf Coast
(1986) 21: Cleveland State 14 vs 7 Navy
(1998) 21: Rhode Island 8 vs 13 Valparaiso
(2011) 21: VCU 11 vs 10 Florida State
(2014) 21: Dayton 11 vs 10 Stanford
All the 25s are in the Round of 32. This happens whenever there are two first-round upsets in the same part of the bracket. You can't get a higher sum than 25 until the third round or later, and this has yet to happen. The closest was 14 Chattanooga vs. 10 Providence in 1997.
Sweet 16:
(1997) 24: Chattanooga 14 vs 10 Providence
(2013) 22: Wichita State 9 vs 13 La Salle
(1986) 21: Cleveland State 14 vs 7 Navy
(1998) 21: Rhode Island 8 vs 13 Valparaiso
(2011) 21: VCU 11 vs 10 Florida State
(2014) 21: Dayton 11 vs 10 Stanford
(2016) 21: Gonzaga 11 vs 10 Syracuse
(2002) 20: UCLA 8 vs 12 Missouri
(1990) 18: Loyola Marymount 11 vs 7 Alabama
(2001) 18: Temple 11 vs 7 Penn State
Elite Eight
(2000) 15: North Carolina 8 vs 7 Tulsa
(2002) 15: Indiana 5 vs 10 Kent State
(1990) 14: Arkansas 4 vs 10 Texas
(1997) 14: Arizona 4 vs 10 Providence
(2000) 14: Wisconsin 8 vs 6 Purdue
(2002) 14: Missouri 12 vs 2 Oklahoma
(1986) 12: Kentucky 1 vs 11 LSU
(1990) 12: UNLV 1 vs 11 Loyola Marymount
(1994) 12: Boston College 9 vs 3 Florida
(2001) 12: Michigan State 1 vs 11 Temple
Final Four
(2011) 19: VCU 11 vs 8 Butler
(2006) 14: Florida 3 vs 11 George Mason
(1986) 13: LSU 11 vs 2 Louisville
(2000) 13: Florida 5 vs 8 North Carolina
(2016) 11: North Carolina 1 vs 10 Syracuse
(1985) 10: Villanova 8 vs 2 Memphis State
(1992) 10: Michigan# 6 vs 4 Cincinnati
(2010) 10: Michigan State 5 vs 5 Butler
(2013) 10: Louisville 1 vs 9 Wichita State
(2014) 10: Wisconsin 2 vs 8 Kentucky
Finals
(2014) 15: Connecticut 7 vs 8 Kentucky
(2011) 11: Connecticut 3 vs 8 Butler
(1985) 9: Georgetown 1 vs 8 Villanova
(1988) 7: Kansas 6 vs 1 Oklahoma
(1992) 7: Duke 1 vs 6 Michigan#
(1989) 6: Seton Hall 3 vs 3 Michigan
(2000) 6: Florida 5 vs 1 Michigan State
(2002) 6: Maryland 1 vs 5 Indiana
(2010) 6: Butler 5 vs 1 Duke
(1991) 5: Kansas 3 vs 2 Duke
Or what was the craziest final four (i.e. highest sum of seeds)? It was 26, in 2011. The least crazy was 2008's final four, the only with four 1 seeds.
26 2011 Kentucky (4) Connecticut (3) VCU (11) Butler ( 8)
22 2000 Florida (5) North Carolina (8) Michigan State ( 1) Wisconsin ( 8)
20 2006 LSU (4) UCLA (2) Florida ( 3) George Mason (11)
18 2014 Florida (1) Connecticut (7) Wisconsin ( 2) Kentucky ( 8)
18 2013 Louisville (1) Wichita State (9) Michigan ( 4) Syracuse ( 4)
15 2016 Villanova (2) Oklahoma (2) North Carolina ( 1) Syracuse (10)
16 2018 Loyola–Chicago (11) Michigan ( 3) Villanova ( 1) Kansas ( 1)
15 1986 Duke (1) Kansas (1) LSU (11) Louisville ( 2)
13 2010 Michigan State (5) Butler (5) West Virginia ( 2) Duke ( 1)
13 1992 Duke (1) Indiana (2) Michigan# ( 6) Cincinnati ( 4)
12 2017 South Carolina (7) Gonzaga (1) Oregon ( 3) North Carolina ( 1)
12 1990 Duke (3) Arkansas (4) Georgia Tech ( 4) UNLV ( 1)
12 1985 Georgetown (1) St John's (1) Villanova ( 8) Memphis State ( 2)
11 2005 Illinois (1) Louisville (4) North Carolina ( 1) Michigan State ( 5)
11 1996 Massachusetts (1) Kentucky (1) Miss. State ( 5) Syracuse ( 4)
10 2015 Kentucky (1) Wisconsin (1) Michigan State ( 7) Duke ( 1)
10 1988 Duke (2) Kansas (6) Oklahoma ( 1) Arizona ( 1)
10 1987 Syracuse (2) Providence (6) Indiana ( 1) UNLV ( 1)
9 2012 Kentucky (1) Louisville (4) Ohio State ( 2) Kansas ( 2)
9 2003 Syracuse (3) Texas (1) Marquette ( 3) Kansas ( 2)
9 2002 Maryland (1) Kansas (1) Indiana ( 5) Oklahoma ( 2)
9 1998 North Carolina (1) Utah (3) Kentucky ( 2) Stanford ( 3)
9 1995 Oklahoma State (4) UCLA (1) North Carolina ( 2) Arkansas ( 2)
9 1989 Duke (2) Seton Hall (3) Michigan ( 3) Illinois ( 1)
8 2004 Oklahoma State (2) Georgia Tech (3) Duke ( 1) Connecticut ( 2)
8 1994 Florida (3) Duke (2) Arkansas ( 1) Arizona ( 2)
7 2009 Michigan St. (2) Connecticut (1) Villanova ( 3) North Carolina ( 1)
7 2001 Duke (1) Maryland (3) Michigan State ( 1) Arizona ( 2)
7 1999 Duke (1) Michigan State (1) Ohio State ( 4) Connecticut ( 1)
7 1997 North Carolina (1) Arizona (4) Minnesota* ( 1) Kentucky ( 1)
7 1991 North Carolina (1) Kansas (3) Duke ( 2) UNLV ( 1)
6 2007 Florida (1) UCLA (2) Georgetown ( 2) Ohio State ( 1)
5 1993 North Carolina (1) Kansas (2) Kentucky ( 1) Michigan * ( 1)
4 2008 North Carolina (1) Kansas (1) Memphis ( 1) UCLA ( 1)
The data comes from Wikipedia articles. It's all in data/YYYY.json. For example:
{
"year": 1997,
"regions": [
[
[
[
{
"round_of": 64, "seed": 1,
"team": "North Carolina", "score": 82,
},
{
"round_of": 64, "seed": 16,
"team": "Fairfield", "score": 74
}
],
...
],
...
],
...
],
"finalfour": [
[
[
{
"round_of": 4, "seed": 1,
"team": "North Carolina", "score": 58
},
{
"round_of": 4, "seed": 4,
"team": "Arizona", "score": 66
}
],
[
{
"round_of": 4, "seed": 1,
"team": "Minnesota*", "score": 69
},
{
"round_of": 4, "seed": 1,
"team": "Kentucky", "score": 78
}
]
],
[
[
{
"round_of": 2, "seed": 4,
"team": "Arizona", "score": 84
},
{
"round_of": 2, "seed": 1,
"team": "Kentucky", "score": 79
}
]
]
]
}- There are four regions.
- Each contains an array of four rounds.
- Each round contains an array of games.
- Each game is an array of two teams.
- Each team is an object with
round_of,seed,teamandscorekeys.
If you're working in Python, you can find some helper functions in utils.py and some
example code in find_highest_seeds.py and craziest_final_four.py:
$ ./craziest_final_four.py data/*.json
26 2011 Kentucky ( 4) Connecticut ( 3) VCU (11) Butler ( 8)
22 2000 Florida ( 5) North Carolina ( 8) Michigan State ( 1) Wisconsin ( 8)
20 2006 LSU ( 4) UCLA ( 2) Florida ( 3) George Mason (11)
18 2014 Florida ( 1) Connecticut ( 7) Wisconsin ( 2) Kentucky ( 8)
18 2013 Louisville ( 1) Wichita State ( 9) Michigan ( 4) Syracuse ( 4)
...
To regenerate (or update) the data, you'll need Python 3.6 or later. Set up your virtual environment and run:
pip install -r requirements.txt
./extract_wiki_source.py pages/*.html
./extract_bracket.py pages/*.wiki
mv pages/*.json data/
To add a new year, use curl to put a new HTML file in pages/YYYY.html. You can
use the URLs in urls.txt as a template.