March Madness: States With Most Cinderella Teams in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament?

March Madness: States With Most Cinderella Teams in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament?
Fact Checked by Nate Hamilton

As the college basketball world whirls its way towards the four-week dervish that is March Madness, few states know the peaks and valleys of the sport’s maddest month quite like Florida. Hopefully, this time next year, Florida sports betting will be live in time for the tournament.  

Between true upstarts like Andy Enfield’s Florida Golf Coast team in 2011 and the state’s Power Five programs that entered the Big Dance off disappointing seasons like Florida State in 2011 and Miami in 2022, Florida has seen its fair share of teams that can wear the title of Cinderella pretty well.  

This year, ESPN bracket guru Joe Lunardi lists USF (13th seed), and Florida (8th seed) in the field of 68, while FAU (6th seed) is firmly in the bracket as of now.  

With the college basketball season heating up and March Madness fast approaching, many bettors are turning their attention to who will be this year’s Cinderella team. If history tells us anything, that team will come from one of the following states. 

Every Double-Digit Seed to Make the Sweet 16 Since 2000

Seed/SchoolYear State
10/Seton Hall 2000 New Jersey
10/Gonzaga 2000 Washington
10/Georgetown 2001 Washington DC
11/Temple 2001 Pennsylvania
12/Gonzaga 2001 Washington
10/Kent State 2002 Ohio
11/Southern Illinois 2002 Illinois
12/Missouri 2002 Missouri
10/Auburn 2003 Alabama
12/Butler 2003 Indiana
10/Nevada 2004 Nevada
10/NC State 2005 North Carolina
12/Milwaukee 2005 Wisconsin
11/George Mason 2006 Virginia
13/Bradley 2006 Illinois
10/Davidson 2008 North Carolina
12/Villanova 2008 Pennsylvania
12/Western Kentucky 2008 Kentucky
12/Arizona 2009 Arizona
10/Saint Mary’s 2010 California
11/Washington 2010 Washington
12/Cornell 2010 New York
11/VCU 2011 Virginia
12/Richmond 2011 Virginia
10/Florida State 2011 Florida
12/Marquette 2011 Wisconsin
10/Xavier 2012 Ohio
11NC State 2012 North Carolina
13/Ohio 2012 Ohio
13/La Salle 2013 Pennsylvania
12/Oregon 2013 Oregon
15/Florida Gulf Coast 2013 Florida
10/Stanford 2014 California
11/Tennessee 2014 Tennessee
11/Dayton 2014 Ohio
11/UCLA 2015 California
11/Gonzaga 2016 Washington
10/Syracuse 2016 New York
11/Xavier 2017 Ohio
11/Loyola Chicago 2018 Illinois
11/Syracuse 2018 New York
12/Oregon 2019 Oregon
12/Oregon State 2021 Oregon
11/UCLA 2021 California
11/Syracuse 2021 New York
15/Oral Roberts 2021 Oklahoma
11/Michigan 2022 Michigan
11/Iowa State 2022 Iowa
10/Miami 2022 Florida
15/St. Peter’s 2022 New Jersey
15/Princeton 2023 New Jersey

States With Most Double-Digit Seeds Reaching Sweet 16

State Double-Digit Seeds In Sweet 16
Ohio 5
California 4
New York 4
Washington 4
Illinois 3
Florida 3
Pennsylvania 3
North Carolina 3
Virginia 3
New Jersey 3
Oregon 3
Wisconsin 2

Where Florida Ranks In Terms Of NCAA Tournament Cinderella Teams

Since 2000, three Florida teams, in the Seminoles of 2011, along with the Eagles in 2013 and the Hurricanes of 2022, have reached the third round of the tournament as a double-digit seed.  

Of that trio, only the Hurricanes made it to the Elite Eight, with UM falling to No. 1 seed Kansas, 76-50, while the Seminoles fell to VCU (72-71 in OT) and the Eagles lost their third-round clash against Florida, 62-50.  

Nationally, Florida’s Cinderella count ranks in a tie with Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon for fifth nationally, behind Ohio (five teams), California, New York and Washington, who had four teams apiece.  

Stay with FloridaBet.com for all the latest sports betting news and our expert Florida sportsbook app reviews.

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Author

Christopher Boan

Christopher Boan writes for FloridaBet.com and has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, with experience at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.

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