If you’ve found yourself watching this year’s March Madness, and repeatedly shouting, “This is MADNESS! This is MADNESS!!!”…let’s be honest, you’re probably the ‘sarcastic one’ in your group of friends.
But it’s true. This year’s tournament actually has been the ‘maddest’ in history.
Of the 60 March Madness games played so far, 20 have been won by the lower-seeded team. By the Sweet Sixteen, two #1-seeded teams were out of the running: Xavier, which lost to 9-seeded Florida State in the second round…
And the University of Virginia, which famously became the first-ever top-seeded team to fall to a 16-seed in the first game. Meanwhile, an 11-seed, Loyola-Chicago has ridden their magical nun to the Final Four.
The college basketball experts at “Time” magazine claim there has never been a wilder NCAA tournament since March Madness expanded to 64 teams in 1985…and they did a bunch of complicated math to prove it.
Time.com has a rundown…2018 has a ‘Madness Score’ of 2,935, which is the highest. The next highest was in 2013, followed by 2000, 2011, and 1986. (You can find a full methodology by scrolling down, here.)