The 2025 Men’s NCAA tournament had its fair share of storylines but big time upsets and Cinderella stories were not some of them. In fact, major storylines were the lack of upsets in the tournament and the Final Four being made up of all No.1 seeds for just the second time in history.
This tournament solidified the selection committee picks considering the lack of upsets. Seven of the Elite Eight teams were ones and two seeds with No.3 seed Texas Tech being the lowest seed.
With such a loaded Final Four this year it seems like the 2022 Final Four was light-years away when there was just a single one seed accompanied with a couple of two seeds and an eight seed. Although the amount of powerhouses in this year’s Elite Eight and Final Four may have been uncommon, do not be surprised if it becomes the norm moving forward.
In the first round of this year’s tournament there were only seven instances where the lower seed beat the higher seed and two of those “upsets” were nine seeds Creighton and Baylor coming out on top versus eight seeds. These minor upsets are not the bracket busters that draw in so many people to the idea of “March Madness.”
Out of the seven underdogs that got out of the first round, only No.10 seed Arkansas from the SEC, led by Hall of Fame coach John Calipari was victorious in the second round. Arkansas’ two point Sweet 16 loss to 3-seed Texas Tech was arguably the most exciting matchup of the tournament.
The Razorbacks matchup with the Red Raiders was the only game of the tournament that went to overtime. It was a nice change of pace considering the many blowouts throughout the tournament. Out of the 63 games played in the tournament 33 of them were decided by double digits.
Regardless of Arkansas’ seed, it’s difficult to label either of the Razorbacks tournament wins as upsets as they were a team filled with highly touted recruits and transfers. And despite being the lowest seed with multiple tournament wins, you wouldn’t dare call it a Cinderella run. Simply put, this year’s tournament was filled with games where the better team won.
There were arguably only three mid-major victories that caught people’s attention and undoubtedly the most intriguing one was 12-seed McNeese taking down No. 5 seed Clemson in the first round. A team from the Southland Conference like McNeese beating an ACC team like Clemson is what the NCAA tournament should be all about.
It’s no secret that NIL deals and the easily accessible transfer portal both play a role in the lack of mid-majors going anywhere in March. This year’s transfer portal broke records by 2,300 players entering their name, a steep increase from the first year of the transfer portal era when 957 players entered in 2019.
The transfer portal allows these athletes to move from school to school and play immediately. Now in the transfer portal era it’s more common than ever that you’ll have guys play at multiple schools. Houston’s Mylik Wilson is on his third school and Julian Rishwain just finished his college career at UNLV after previous stops at Boston College, San Francisco and Florida.
Wilson and Rishwain are two of many players who’ve entered the portal multiple times whether they are looking for more playing time or more NIL money. It’s a bad look for everyone when players enter the portal numerous times throughout their career.
“These guys that are in three different schools or in some cases four different schools, I mean it’s just laughable,” Washington Post sports columnist Jerry Brewer said. “Basically a mercenary whose agent is just putting them out to the highest bidder, which I think is incredibly sad.”
Many of the transfer portal decisions that are based on money come from mid-major players that are trying to make their way to a bigger market. A perfect example of this is UCLA’s new point guard Donovan Dent. Dent came off a career year playing for the University of New Mexico where he averaged 20.6 points and 6.4 assists per game and led the Lobos to a first round upset over Marquette.
Unfortunately for Lobos fans it didn’t take long after the season ended for Dent to enter the transfer portal and eventually commit to UCLA. It is reported that Dent will cash in $3 million from an NIL deal. Dent was just one of nine Lobo players on scholarship to enter the transfer portal at the season’s conclusion. The mass exodus was also in part to the Lobos losing its head coach Richard Pitino to Xavier.
With the landscape of the transfer portal and NIL it makes it nearly impossible for a mid-major like UNM to retain players and coaches after a successful season. It’s unfortunate that mid-majors didn’t have notable success in this year’s tournament because that is what truly brings the “Madness” to the tournament.
“I don’t think we’re going to see as deep of Cinderella runs with your mid-majors,” said Amie Just, sports columnist at the Lincoln Journal Star. “You might see overlooked schools from major conferences make deeper runs in the future.”
These days a Cinderella run is going to have an entirely different meaning than it did in the pre NIL and transfer portal era. Previous Cinderella runs where 11 seeds like George Mason, VCU and Loyola Chicago made the Final Four are not going to happen anymore.
The Cinderella teams of today are going to be more like last year’s NC State squad who was an 11 seed and made the Final Four before bowing out to No.1 seed Purdue. It’s tough to look at NC State as an underdog when they come out of the big bad ACC.
While NIL and the transfer portal may be a hit among the players it’s sad to say that it has dampened the excitement of March Madness.
