Lowest seeds to make the Men’s Final Four, Elite 8 and Sweet 16

Only five teams with double-digit seeds have qualified for the Final Four Men’s March Madness since the field grew to 64 teams in 1985.
Here’s the TL/DR version of the March Madness seeds story for men:
- 8 is the lowest seed to win the men’s March Madness (Villanova in 1985)
- 11 is the lowest seed to make the Men’s Final Four (George Mason 2006; LSU 1986; VCU 2011; Loyola Chicago 2018; UCLA 2021)
- 15 is the lowest seed to make the Men’s Elite Eight (Saint Peter’s 2022)
- 15 is the lowest seed to make the men’s Sweet 16 (Saint Peter’s 2022; Florida Golf Coast 2013)
The lowest seed to make the Final Four is a No. 11. This has happened five times, most recently in 2021.
The highest seed to ever win the championship is an 8, which has happened twice. The first came in the first NCAA tournament under the modern format, when 8-seeded Villanova defeated 1-seeded Georgetown for the 1985 championship.
Then 2014 gave us the highest total starting value for a championship game as 7-seeded UConn beat 8-seeded Kentucky for the title.