Some quick tourney facts

1. 1st year was 1939 with 8 teams in 1 region.

2. Regions -- Started with a single region in 1939. Went to 2 regions in 1941, and 4 in 1952.

3. Teams -- started with 8 teams from 1939 through 1950. In 1951 and 1952 it had 16 teams. From 1953 through 1974 it had between 22 and 25 teams. In 1975 it expanded to 32 teams through 1978. Then it went to 40, then 48 in 1980 and stayed 48 through 1982. In 1983 there were 52 and in 1984 there were 53 before going to 64 in 1985. It was expanded to 65 in 2001 and then the current 68 in 2011.

4. 3rd place games -- From 1939 through 1975 there were regional 3rd place games. The Final Four kept the 3rd place games a few years longer until 1981. I wish they would bring that back for both the regional and the Final Four.

5. Since the tourney expanded to 64+ teams (1985) there have been 70 teams play in the NC game. Here they are by seed.
1 - 34
2 - 13
3 - 11
4 - 3
5 - 3
6 - 2
7 - 1
8 - 3

6. 1 No. 16 has defeated a No. 1 (UMBC defeated Virginia in 2018)

7. Eight 15 seeds have defeated 2 seeds.

8. 21 14 seeds have defeated 3 seeds.

9. Highest seed to win a NC was 8th seeded Villanova under Rollie Massimino in 1985 defeating Georgetown.

10. 4 times an 11 seed has made the Final Four. LSU in 1986, George Mason in 2006, VCU in 2011 and Loyola (IL) in 2018.

11. Of the 268 games lost by No. 1 seeds, here are the seeds that beat them.
1 -- 55
2 -- 54
3 -- 39
4 -- 47
5 -- 17
6 -- 18
7 -- 4
8 -- 21
9 -- 8
10 -- 1
11 -- 3
16 -- 1

12. 1 seed killers -- Kansas and Duke have each defeated a 1 seed 8 times to tie for most. Arizona has defeated 7 1 seeds and UNC and Villanova 6.

One can hope that KU gets the opportunity this year to add that total cited in factoid #12.