March Madness Data

This repo contains JSON files for all the NCAA brackets from 1985–2017.

Results

Sums of Seeds

After #16 seed UMBC became the first to beat a #1 seed, I was curious what the highest sum of seeds in a game was. This was harder to find out than I expected, so I grabbed some data from Wikipedia and found the answer. It's 25!

(1989) 25:            Minnesota 11 vs 14 Siena
(1991) 25:     Eastern Michigan 12 vs 13 Penn State
(1991) 25:               Temple 10 vs 15 Richmond
(1991) 25:          Connecticut 11 vs 14 Xavier
(1992) 25:     New Mexico State 12 vs 13 Southwest Louisiana
(1993) 25:    George Washington 12 vs 13 Southern
(1997) 25:                Texas 10 vs 15 Coppin State
(1998) 25:           Washington 11 vs 14 Richmond
(1998) 25:        Florida State 12 vs 13 Valparaiso
(2001) 25:           Georgetown 10 vs 15 Hampton
(2001) 25:              Gonzaga 12 vs 13 Indiana State
(2008) 25:            Villanova 12 vs 13 Siena
(2008) 25:                  WKU 12 vs 13 San Diego
(2009) 25:              Arizona 12 vs 13 Cleveland State
(2011) 25:             Richmond 12 vs 13 Morehead State
(2012) 25:               Xavier 10 vs 15 Lehigh
(2012) 25:        South Florida 12 vs 13 Ohio
(2013) 25:          Mississippi 12 vs 13 La Salle
(2014) 25:            Tennessee 11 vs 14 Mercer
(2015) 25:                 UCLA 11 vs 14 UAB
(2016) 25:             Syracuse 10 vs 15 Middle Tennessee
(2018) 25:                 UMBC 16 vs  9 Kansas State
(1997) 24:          Chattanooga 14 vs 10 Providence
(1993) 22:               Temple  7 vs 15 Santa Clara
(2012) 22:              Florida  7 vs 15 Norfolk State
(2013) 22:        Wichita State  9 vs 13 La Salle
(2013) 22:      San Diego State  7 vs 15 Florida Gulf Coast
(1986) 21:      Cleveland State 14 vs  7 Navy
(1998) 21:         Rhode Island  8 vs 13 Valparaiso
(2011) 21:                  VCU 11 vs 10 Florida State
(2014) 21:               Dayton 11 vs 10 Stanford

All the 25s are in the Round of 32. This happens whenever there are two first-round upsets in the same part of the bracket. You can't get a higher sum than 25 until the third round or later, and this has yet to happen. The closest was 14 Chattanooga vs. 10 Providence in 1997.

Sweet 16:

(1997) 24:          Chattanooga 14 vs 10 Providence
(2013) 22:        Wichita State  9 vs 13 La Salle
(1986) 21:      Cleveland State 14 vs  7 Navy
(1998) 21:         Rhode Island  8 vs 13 Valparaiso
(2011) 21:                  VCU 11 vs 10 Florida State
(2014) 21:               Dayton 11 vs 10 Stanford
(2016) 21:              Gonzaga 11 vs 10 Syracuse
(2002) 20:                 UCLA  8 vs 12 Missouri
(1990) 18:     Loyola Marymount 11 vs  7 Alabama
(2001) 18:               Temple 11 vs  7 Penn State

Elite Eight

(2000) 15:       North Carolina  8 vs  7 Tulsa
(2002) 15:              Indiana  5 vs 10 Kent State
(1990) 14:             Arkansas  4 vs 10 Texas
(1997) 14:              Arizona  4 vs 10 Providence
(2000) 14:            Wisconsin  8 vs  6 Purdue
(2002) 14:             Missouri 12 vs  2 Oklahoma
(1986) 12:             Kentucky  1 vs 11 LSU
(1990) 12:                 UNLV  1 vs 11 Loyola Marymount
(1994) 12:       Boston College  9 vs  3 Florida
(2001) 12:       Michigan State  1 vs 11 Temple

Final Four

(2011) 19:                  VCU 11 vs  8 Butler
(2006) 14:              Florida  3 vs 11 George Mason
(1986) 13:                  LSU 11 vs  2 Louisville
(2000) 13:              Florida  5 vs  8 North Carolina
(2016) 11:       North Carolina  1 vs 10 Syracuse
(1985) 10:            Villanova  8 vs  2 Memphis State
(1992) 10:            Michigan#  6 vs  4 Cincinnati
(2010) 10:       Michigan State  5 vs  5 Butler
(2013) 10:           Louisville  1 vs  9 Wichita State
(2014) 10:            Wisconsin  2 vs  8 Kentucky

Finals

(2014) 15:          Connecticut  7 vs  8 Kentucky
(2011) 11:          Connecticut  3 vs  8 Butler
(1985)  9:           Georgetown  1 vs  8 Villanova
(1988)  7:               Kansas  6 vs  1 Oklahoma
(1992)  7:                 Duke  1 vs  6 Michigan#
(1989)  6:           Seton Hall  3 vs  3 Michigan
(2000)  6:              Florida  5 vs  1 Michigan State
(2002)  6:             Maryland  1 vs  5 Indiana
(2010)  6:               Butler  5 vs  1 Duke
(1991)  5:               Kansas  3 vs  2 Duke

Craziest Final Four

Or what was the craziest final four (i.e. highest sum of seeds)? It was 26, in 2011. The least crazy was 2008's final four, the only with four 1 seeds.

26 2011         Kentucky (4)     Connecticut (3)              VCU (11)          Butler ( 8)
22 2000          Florida (5)  North Carolina (8)   Michigan State ( 1)       Wisconsin ( 8)
20 2006              LSU (4)            UCLA (2)          Florida ( 3)    George Mason (11)
18 2014          Florida (1)     Connecticut (7)        Wisconsin ( 2)        Kentucky ( 8)
18 2013       Louisville (1)   Wichita State (9)         Michigan ( 4)        Syracuse ( 4)
15 2016        Villanova (2)        Oklahoma (2)   North Carolina ( 1)        Syracuse (10)
16 2018  Loyola–Chicago (11)       Michigan ( 3)        Villanova ( 1)          Kansas ( 1)
15 1986             Duke (1)          Kansas (1)              LSU (11)      Louisville ( 2)
13 2010   Michigan State (5)          Butler (5)    West Virginia ( 2)            Duke ( 1)
13 1992             Duke (1)         Indiana (2)        Michigan# ( 6)      Cincinnati ( 4)
12 2017   South Carolina (7)         Gonzaga (1)           Oregon ( 3)  North Carolina ( 1)
12 1990             Duke (3)        Arkansas (4)     Georgia Tech ( 4)            UNLV ( 1)
12 1985       Georgetown (1)       St John's (1)        Villanova ( 8)   Memphis State ( 2)
11 2005         Illinois (1)      Louisville (4)   North Carolina ( 1)  Michigan State ( 5)
11 1996    Massachusetts (1)        Kentucky (1)      Miss. State ( 5)        Syracuse ( 4)
10 2015         Kentucky (1)       Wisconsin (1)   Michigan State ( 7)            Duke ( 1)
10 1988             Duke (2)          Kansas (6)         Oklahoma ( 1)         Arizona ( 1)
10 1987         Syracuse (2)      Providence (6)          Indiana ( 1)            UNLV ( 1)
 9 2012         Kentucky (1)      Louisville (4)       Ohio State ( 2)          Kansas ( 2)
 9 2003         Syracuse (3)           Texas (1)        Marquette ( 3)          Kansas ( 2)
 9 2002         Maryland (1)          Kansas (1)          Indiana ( 5)        Oklahoma ( 2)
 9 1998   North Carolina (1)            Utah (3)         Kentucky ( 2)        Stanford ( 3)
 9 1995   Oklahoma State (4)            UCLA (1)   North Carolina ( 2)        Arkansas ( 2)
 9 1989             Duke (2)      Seton Hall (3)         Michigan ( 3)        Illinois ( 1)
 8 2004   Oklahoma State (2)    Georgia Tech (3)             Duke ( 1)     Connecticut ( 2)
 8 1994          Florida (3)            Duke (2)         Arkansas ( 1)         Arizona ( 2)
 7 2009     Michigan St. (2)     Connecticut (1)        Villanova ( 3)  North Carolina ( 1)
 7 2001             Duke (1)        Maryland (3)   Michigan State ( 1)         Arizona ( 2)
 7 1999             Duke (1)  Michigan State (1)       Ohio State ( 4)     Connecticut ( 1)
 7 1997   North Carolina (1)         Arizona (4)       Minnesota* ( 1)        Kentucky ( 1)
 7 1991   North Carolina (1)          Kansas (3)             Duke ( 2)            UNLV ( 1)
 6 2007          Florida (1)            UCLA (2)       Georgetown ( 2)      Ohio State ( 1)
 5 1993   North Carolina (1)          Kansas (2)         Kentucky ( 1)      Michigan * ( 1)
 4 2008   North Carolina (1)          Kansas (1)          Memphis ( 1)            UCLA ( 1)

Using the data

The data comes from Wikipedia articles. It's all in data/YYYY.json. For example:

{
  "year": 1997,
  "regions": [
    [
      [
        [
          {
            "round_of": 64, "seed": 1,
            "team": "North Carolina", "score": 82,
          },
          {
            "round_of": 64, "seed": 16,
            "team": "Fairfield", "score": 74
          }
        ],
        ...
      ],
      ...
    ],
    ...
  ],
  "finalfour": [
    [
      [
        {
          "round_of": 4, "seed": 1,
          "team": "North Carolina", "score": 58
        },
        {
          "round_of": 4, "seed": 4,
          "team": "Arizona", "score": 66
        }
      ],
      [
        {
          "round_of": 4, "seed": 1,
          "team": "Minnesota*", "score": 69
        },
        {
          "round_of": 4, "seed": 1,
          "team": "Kentucky", "score": 78
        }
      ]
    ],
    [
      [
        {
          "round_of": 2, "seed": 4,
          "team": "Arizona", "score": 84
        },
        {
          "round_of": 2, "seed": 1,
          "team": "Kentucky", "score": 79
        }
      ]
    ]
  ]
}

• There are four regions.
• Each contains an array of four rounds.
• Each round contains an array of games.
• Each game is an array of two teams.
• Each team is an object with round_of, seed, team and score keys.

If you're working in Python, you can find some helper functions in utils.py and some example code in find_highest_seeds.py and craziest_final_four.py:

$ ./craziest_final_four.py data/*.json
26 2011         Kentucky ( 4)       Connecticut ( 3)              VCU (11)           Butler ( 8)
22 2000          Florida ( 5)    North Carolina ( 8)   Michigan State ( 1)        Wisconsin ( 8)
20 2006              LSU ( 4)              UCLA ( 2)          Florida ( 3)     George Mason (11)
18 2014          Florida ( 1)       Connecticut ( 7)        Wisconsin ( 2)         Kentucky ( 8)
18 2013       Louisville ( 1)     Wichita State ( 9)         Michigan ( 4)         Syracuse ( 4)
...

Updating the data

To regenerate (or update) the data, you'll need Python 3.6 or later. Set up your virtual environment and run:

pip install -r requirements.txt
./extract_wiki_source.py pages/*.html
./extract_bracket.py pages/*.wiki
mv pages/*.json data/

To add a new year, use curl to put a new HTML file in pages/YYYY.html. You can use the URLs in urls.txt as a template.