Fans betting on March Madness for the first time, tend to get into the betting habit of expecting the top ranked seeds to be eliminated by a heavy underdog. Since this is a common mistake, many fans new to the March Madness, tend to be eliminated rather quickly in their pools. Remember although the tournament is known for the big upsets, these teams that were ranked number one in each bracket, were not ranked by fluke.

After reading this, it is important to keep in mind that over the history of the tournament, a number one seed winning the entire tournament almost occurs as rarely as a 16 seed making it out of the first round. Since 1949, the UCLA Bruins have won an astounding eight March Madness titles once being ranked as one of the top seeds. In the 1970s alone, the Bruins won four of their eight titles. Further, from 1949 to 2001 only 22 teams were able to accomplish the feat of being ranked number one and winning the tournament.

Since 1979 when the NCAA adopted the seeding format to the tournament, the final four was made up of all number one seeds only once, in 2008. As previously noted, the idea of a number one seed winning the entire tournament is as rare as a number 16. Moreover in 2008 when all four number ones ranked seeds met (Kansas, UNC, UCLA and Memphis) it became nullified after the tournament, as Memphis was disqualified from being ranked number one due to an ineligible player being a part of the roster.

Also, since the format of four number one seeds, one for each bracket, was adapted in 1979, two number one seeds have only met six times in the tournament. UNC was a part of these six finals, three times. For fans still thinking of betting against the number one seeds, be aware, that a number one seed has only missed the final four twice in tournament history. In 1980, the final four was #2 Louisville vs. #8 UCLA and #5 Iowa vs. #6 Purdue. The other time this occurred was in 2006 as #2 UCLA faced #11 George Mason and #3 Florida faced #4 LSU.