In many cases, this year’s men’s March Madness Tournament made headlines for all the wrong reasons. 2025 was the first year since 2008 where every number one seed made the Final Four. 2008 was also the last time that no seed below a 12 won their first-round matchup. Fans called for more interesting games. Some even touted the tournament as the most boring March Madness of all time.
Northwestern is a place full of sports fans and sports writers. So I caught up with three, who all disagreed with the idea that this was the most boring March Madness ever.
[Patrick Winograd] If there was ever going to be a year that all four of the one seeds made it, it was going to be this year. But I also think, at the same time, that made for a really exciting Final Four.
That’s Medill Junior, Patrick Winograd. During this college basketball season, Winograd hosted Bracket Babble, a college basketball podcast. He pointed to the thin margins of the Final Four and National Championship games as factors that made for a good tournament, despite the lack of upsets.
[Winograd] There weren’t any upsets in the early rounds, and I think that’s something that kind of defines March Madness is that, it’s the madness aspect of it, right? It’s the 16 beating a one. It’s UMBC. It’s Fairleigh Dickinson. It’s all that stuff. But, you know, maybe we’ve gotten a little bit spoiled.
While the upsets are always a major appeal of March Madness, there are factors beyond this that fans find important. For Medill Sophomore Eliav Brooks-Rubin, who writes the column Collins’ Classroom analyzing Northwestern basketball, the coaching was a sight to behold.
[Eliav Brooks-Rubin] Kelvin Sampson against Duke, the way he defended in the second half, was remarkable. I think everything Florida does in the second half of basketball games has really impressed me. They changed up their looks defensively, they got out on the break more, and then offensively some of the sets that Florida runs, I was just blown away by.
While many agree that this was not the most boring March Madness, other critics fear that the transfer portal might mean this question will be asked more in the future. With mid-major players and coaches consistently being scooped by top programs in need, the gap has become wider and wider between a National Champion like Florida and a strong mid-major program. Medill first-year Charlie Jacobs noted this as a pattern of things to come, especially if schools have more funding to use toward NIL contracts for players.
[Charlie Jacobs] Yeah, upsets weren’t as existent this year, but also it makes sense with how college basketball, just college sports in general have really transitioned to these power conferences, really showing their power, really showing how impressive these players are because they come from all these smaller programs through the transfer portal. Coaches leave, they go to bigger schools, and all their players follow them.
As revenue sharing between sports begins to play a role in the world of college athletics, schools with larger football programs may have more money to go around. For some powerhouse football schools, this may mean more money to attract basketball recruits as well. For fans who love a dramatic upset, not all hope is lost. Winograd pointed to other divisions of college athletics as having some incredible athletes. In particular, Drake’s coach, Ben McCollum, who took the job at Drake after coaching at Division II Northwest Missouri State. With McCollum came a smorgasbord of elite DII talent.
[Winograd] It’s just going to be about what coaches at the mid-major level can identify those players in DII, in JuCo, that they can bring up to replace the guys that inevitably do get poached by the bigger teams with more NIL money, bigger programs.
[Sound] Song – One Shining Moment
For WNUR News, I’m Gabe Shumway.
