We are officially three days into March Madness, and the men’s tournament in well short on one very important ingredient: madness.
Much of the magic of brackets is made in their eventual busting, and so far this year, brackets haven’t been very busted. Or rather, brackets have been busted—but not by crazy upsets where a top seed drops out of the tournament early, but because a generation of bracket builders have known to always push a few double-digit seeds through to the Sweet 16, and that’s simply not happening.
We are simply lacking in chaos thus far. Is this, really, March?
While this assessment is mostly vibes based, the numbers do back it up to an extent. Things have been awfully chalky to start out the tournament.
Since the bracket expanded in 1985, this is the sixth time that the 1, 2, 3 and 4 seeds all went undefeated in the first round. The others: 1994, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2017. The '94, '00, '07 and '17 tournaments were won by 1 seeds, while the '04 tournament was won by a 2 seed.
— David Worlock (@DavidWorlock) March 22, 2025
While there was some minor madness on day three of the tournament—No. 2 St. John’s got bounced by No. 10 Arkansas—the upset loses a lot of its luster as soon as you look past the seedings. Can any team coached by John Calipari truly be seen as an underdog?
As another day of mostly chalk unfolded, college basketball fans began to air their frustrations in the form of tweets.
This is the most disappointing first two days of March Madness that I can remember. Lots of blowouts, no crazy upsets. Only like 3-5 close games.
— Brian Leckie (@ThePharoahRules) March 22, 2025
— Memes (@PardonMyMeme) March 22, 2025
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) March 21, 2025
This March seems a little low on Madness if you ask me
— Alex Bacani (@alexbacani) March 22, 2025
Too much March
— @KedgeOnline (@KedgeOnline) March 21, 2025
Not enough Madness
I have not seen nearly enough madness this March
— 🧀is🔙 (@McKinneyDPOY) March 23, 2025
There have been plenty of entertaining moments throughout the tournament so far—McNeese State manager Amir “Aura” Khan becoming a celebrity, scorebug hijinks, comical rule reviews. But madness? We are woefully short on it.
We still have a full day of action left in the opening weekend of the tournament, and there’s still room for some madness to develop. Could No. 12 Colorado State make a run to the Sweet 16? Or maybe Duke or Florida become the first one-seed to crash out of the tournament?
It could happen. But it’s also possible that this year’s tournament simply isn’t mad.
It’s just March.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as March Madness Fans Mad There’s Not More Madness in March.