NCAA Tournament: Favorites Achieve Perfect Friday, Low Seeds Struggle

Favorites dominated Friday's NCAA Tournament games, achieving a perfect 16-0 record. This marks the first time since 1992 that all favorites won outright on a single day of the tournament, contrasting with Thursday's results that featured underdog victories from No. 11 VCU and No. 12 High Point.

Unprecedented Struggles for Low Seeds

For the second consecutive year, teams seeded 13 through 16 did not secure a win in the tournament.

This had not occurred since the NCAA Tournament expanded to a 64-team format in 1985.

This trend is suggested to be influenced by the evolving landscape of college athletics, where roster-building tools enable power conference programs to strengthen their teams by acquiring players who previously contributed to upsets at mid-major programs.

Betting Insights: Friday and Tournament Totals

Betting results for Friday indicated that favorites were 16-0 outright and 12-4 against the spread (ATS). The "over" hit in 11 games.

Overall, through 32 tournament games, favorites hold a 26-6 outright record and a 20-12 ATS record, with the "over" occurring in 19 of 32 contests.