The 2025 men’s Final Four is officially set, with all four No. 1 seeds — Florida, Duke, Houston and Auburn — advancing. It is just the second time since the tournament expanded to 64 teams that all four No. 1 seeds have made it out of their regions, joining only the 2008 tournament.
If you are a fan of seeing the best teams, the best players and the best talent play on the biggest stage for a championship, it should be an exciting series of games in San Antonio.
All four teams demonstrated all season that they were the best of the best, and their tournament runs have only validated that standing.
But even though these four teams should — in theory — provide the best possible basketball for this level, seeing the tournament go straight chalk robs the whole thing of some of the magic and chaos that the tournament is usually defined by.
There is a reason it is called “March Madness,” after all.
It’s because of the 15-seed that knocks off the 2-seed, or the double-digit seed that makes an improbable run to the Elite Eight, or the mid-major that somehow ends up in the Final Four.
Those types of runs used to be launching pads for programs to take the next step and become nationally relevant. It used to shine a spotlight on a young coach, or star player that was typically hidden.
None of that happened this season.
It is not just about the fact four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four, either. Even before this weekend’s results in the Regional Finals, there were almost no Cinderella runs. The Elite Eight was made up of the four No. 1s, three No. 2s and one No. 3.
If you go back through every matchup in the tournament, the higher-seeded team won 49 of the first 60 games played.
Of the 11 instances were a lower-seeded team won, two of them were No. 9 over No. 8 and one was a No. 5 over a No. 4.
Maybe it’s not a huge surprise that the best teams kept winning (they are the better teams, after all), but if college basketball starts to find itself in a situation where the top-seeded teams just automatically keep winning, it would be enough to make you wonder what the point of a 68-team field is.
Yes, people want to watch the best teams. But upsets and uncertainty are what really bring in viewers, create buzz and make it intriguing.
It’s why you play the games.
The dominance of the top teams in this year’s field has created a discussion as to how much the transfer portal and NIL have driven the divide between the top teams, the mid-majors, and the smaller schools.
As soon as a smaller school player shows they can hang with top-tier competition, a burlap sack with a dollar sign on it shows up at their front door and they are off to one of the blue blood programs. As long as that keeps happening, it should be expected that they will keep getting better and the divide between the two tiers of programs would keep getting larger and larger.
Was this season a fluke? Or a sign of things to come in the future? If you like unexpected results, intrigue and real, actual “March Madness” you should be hoping for the former.
