BleacherReport.com (March 16) -- "Computer science professor Sheldon H. Jacobson shared these numbers with the News Bureau of Illinois, and we're not too proud to co-opt them for our brackets. Since 1985, an average of 4.45 teams seeded No. 11 or worse have advanced to the round of 32 and an average of 1.69 teams seeded No. 13 or worse have won in the first round. And only in 1995 has a team seeded No. 7 or worse not made the Sweet 16." Also: BuzzFeed (March 16), CBS Sports (March 17).
Related story: Men's Health (March 17) -- Sixty-eight teams going head-to-head in single-elimination games over six rounds leaves some 147 quintillion ways to blow your office bracket, says Sheldon Jacobson, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The number again: 147, followed by 18 zeros. So Jacobson has calculated an edge: The chart below shows the percentage of times each seed has won to advance to a new round since the playoff format was standardized in 1985.