March Madness 2025: The Most Uninteresting Final Four of All Time

The Final Four is upon us in this March Madness season, with 1 Duke leading the men’s favorite, 2 UConn, and 1 South Carolina leading the women’s favorite. 1 Florida also seems to have slightly better stats, which will likely give them the edge over 1 Auburn, making them likely favorites for the left side of the men’s bracket. All this being said, why do we here at FastBreak find both these Final Four lineups so uninteresting?

1. Zero Opportunities for Final Four Upsets

In case it isn’t clear. Here at FastBreak, upsets are a big deal. Not only are they incredibly fun to talk about and break down, but they are also incredibly fun to follow throughout the tournament. While upsets hurt the higher-seated team’s fanbase, for the majority of people watching, it’s exciting to watch from a neutral perspective.

Assuming we use some of the rules from our previous article and using the timeframe from this article, we can find these stats:

• Of the 90 men’s Final Four matches, 33 have been potential upsets, roughly 36.6% of games
• Has happened a lot in recent men’s basketball history
• Of the 60 women’s Final Four matches, 8 have been potential upsets, roughly 26.6% of games
• Not totally surprising given their Final Four seeding data
• Of the 150 Final Four matches, 41 have been potential upsets, roughly 27.3% of games

How does this information contribute to the main question? Neither bracket has the possibility of a true seeded upset. We see that statistically this is not impossible, and this has actually happened multiple times. What hasn’t happened before is the seeded lineup of teams we have.

2. One Seed, One Seed, One Seed

Out of the eight Final Four teams, seven of them are seeded number 1 in their region. UConn is the one outlier; however, any avid women’s college basketball watcher will tell you that UConn is basically a pseudo 1 seed. Having come from the weaker Big East conference, UConn struggles to get into that 1 seed slot compared to the Big Ten and SEC schools. 2 UConn also beat the 1 USC and are largely favored to win the entire tournament despite being a 2 seed.

Not only is this the second time in basketball history that the mens’ Final Four is entirely No. 1 seeds. But it’s also the first time in history that the girls’ Final Four has also been ‘basically’ all No. 1 seeds, at the same time. 2008 was the only other opportunity for this to happen. This was the only other year in men’s basketball history that every No. 1 seed made it to the Final Four.

This ‘dig’ towards No. 1 seeds and balanced matchups in no way dilutes the excitement of two teams playing that are evenly matched. No. 1 seed battles can be incredibly competitive and exciting. Non-upset matches are the same. However, nothing can compare to the excitement of a No. 11 seed battling its way to the Final Four and taking on one of the best teams in the entire country.

3. Lack of Variety

Team variety is another thing we see lacking in the Final Four. Let’s take a look at the women’s bracket first. Both UConn and South Carolina are no strangers to the final four. UConn has historically made it to the final four under coach Geno Auriemma. South Carolina lacks the history, but it makes up for it by making its fifth appearance in the Final Four within the last five years.

USC and UCLA are where the Women’s side of the bracket picks up some points in uniqueness. USC has not seen the Final Four since 1986. This also means that they haven’t seen the Final Four since a fully seeded women’s bracket has happened, the first fully seeded bracket being created in 1994. UCLA has never made it to the Final Four, which gives even more points to the women’s side of the bracket.

The men’s side of the bracket, however, is a completely different story. While there aren’t any truly dominant teams out of the four, they have all appeared in the Final Four. Let’s start with the best, Auburn. They made their first appearance in 2019. This March Madness being their second appearance in the history of their program.

Florida and Houston tie for the ‘not so bad’ place. Each has had 7 appearances, including 2025. Two of Houston’s appearances came before fully seeded March Madness Brackets, the first fully seeded bracket being created in 1979. Duke, however, has had more appearances than every other team combined. 18 appearances, 4 of which came before fully seeded brackets.

Keyword Uninteresting not Boring

It’s important to again mention we in no way intend to take the fun out of watching basketball. Basketball is incredibly fun to watch. If you are here, you probably also resonate with this statement as well. These 2025 Final Four matches are going to be exciting and competitive, it’s just unfortunate to see an extremely predictable line up going into this coming weekend. The question remains: What do you think, is this the most uninteresting Final Four of all time? Share your thoughts down below.

-The FastBreakStats Blog