The 2026 March Madness tournament has delivered many upsets, good storylines with unknown teams, breakout players, and teams unexpectedly causing upsets. As of now, we’re in the final four with teams we had an idea that would make it on one side, and on the other side, quite the opposite.
With name, image, and likeness (NIL) becoming a major factor in college basketball, we are seeing fewer and fewer upsets. The bigger programs have more opportunities to give money to the highly ranked athletes. This gives the smaller program less of a chance to even compete with the larger program. The upsets we did see were No. 12 High Point defeating Wisconsin, No. 11 Texas defeating BYU and Gonzaga, No. 11 VCU upsetting North Carolina, and No. 9 Iowa defeating schools including Florida and Nebraska.
For example, programs like Houston, Texas, St. John’s, Kentucky, Duke, and Michigan spent a reported 22 million dollars on creating their rosters this year. Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg got $10 million to play on the team this season. In contrast, High Point University spent $4.3 million dollars on their whole roster, including coaches’ salaries.
The final four is headlined by the Michigan Wolverines, Arizona Wildcats, UConn Huskies, and the Fighting Illini (Illinois). Many expected Michigan and Arizona to advance to the final rounds with the star filled rosters both teams have. Michigan is a very experienced program with not many active freshmen. In contrast, Arizona is a very young team with no experience in March, but this hasn’t seemed to matter.
On the other side, UConn and Illinois are two teams not that not many people expected to make it to the final four, but are very talented. Illinois uses their physicality to their advantage and how big their players are. UConn is headlined by Coach Dan Hurley and their talented group of seniors.
Overall, this tournament has featured several buzz-beaters, high-energy games, and inspiring backgrounds displaying these great athletes on and off the court. The National Championship is set to be a great one displaying some of the best college basketball players in the nation.
