The NCAA tournament is all chalk, and still as entertaining as ever

How’s your bracket doing? Pretty good, probably, with chalk dominating the 2025 NCAA tournament. 

Just three years after the most wide-open Elite Eight in the 40-year history of the 64-team bracket (with 15th-seeded St. Peters, 10th-seeded Miami and eighth-seeded North Carolina),  this year’s Elite Eight is tied for the most chalk — 1 vs. 2, 1 vs. 2, 1 vs. 2 and 1 vs. 3. 

That seed total of 13 is one over the minimum for an Elite Eight and ties the 2009 Elite Eight for the lowest seed total in the 64-team tournament. (No. 15 St. Peters alone in 2022 tops this year’s entire Elite Eight seed total.) 

You know it’s a chalk year when the best chance for a team seeded lower than fifth to make the Elite Eight is coached by John Calipari, one of the best recruiters in the business. Alas, No. 10-seed Arkansas blew a 13-point lead in the final 4:30 to lose to No. 3-seed Texas Tech in the Sweet 16. 

I thought this would be the year for the elusive perfect bracket. But — at least in ESPN’s bracket competition — there is no perfect bracket alive among the 24,388,569 brackets. The current leader is 54-2 through three rounds — with No. 10 New Mexico’s upset of No. 7 Marquette and No. 12 McNeese State’s upset of No. 5 Clemson the losses. 

While Cinderella teams get much of the glory — St. Peters, Florida Atlantic (No. 9 in 2023), Loyola (No. 11 in 2018), Florida Gulf Coast (No. 15 in 2013) and VCU (No. 11 in 2011) — favorites have generally dominated the NCAA tournament. Even in the upset-ridden 2022 tournament with St. Peters, the Final Four seeds were 1-2-2-8, with No. 8 North Carolina beating St. Peters to qualify as the long shot. 

That’s why the NCAA tournament is such a great event. As memorable as those Cinderella stories are, the tournament doesn’t need them to provide the One Shining Moments. 

Competition does that trick. College basketball is a shell of what it once was. Duke teams from 15-20 years ago — some that didn’t even make the Final Four — would be 10 points better than this year’s team that is the current favorite to win it all. 

But close games are close games, regardless of the circumstances that created them. In a matter of minutes in real time in the final seconds of a tie game on Friday night, Houston guard Milos Uzan got away with an egregious push-off before missing a shot to win it, then was on the game-winning end of a perfectly executed inbounds play with 2.2 seconds left — with inbounder Uzan getting a quick return pass for an easy lay-in with 0.9 seconds left. 

You don’t need St. Peters or Florida Atlantic to create that kind of entertainment. As long as people love their school, the NCAA basketball tournament will always be as big as it ever was.