Here are the most common upset picks in brackets for the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament
Nic Antaya/Getty Images
- It is time to fill out your March Madness brackets.
- We took a look at nearly 10 million ESPN brackets to see which teams are popular Cinderella picks.
- Michigan is a popular upset pick early, while Iowa is a popular Final Four pick.
March Madness is back, and it is time to fill out your brackets.
Read more: Here's your printable 2022 NCAA men's tournament bracket
There are two big keys to a successful bracket: 1) Nail at least a couple of the Final Four teams; 2) Successfully pick as many upsets as possible early in the tournament.
We took a look at the nearly 10 million brackets that have been filled out in ESPN's Men's Tournament Challenge to see which teams are the most popular Cinderella picks.
The first number is the team's seed. Percentages represent how often people pick that team to win their game in that round.
Round of 64 (11-seeds or lower picked in at least 20% of brackets to advance to the second round)
- 11 Michigan (South) — 55.4%
- 11 Virginia Tech (East) — 53.2%
- 11 Iowa State (Midwest) — 38.0%
- 13 South Dakota State (Midwest) — 28.7%
- 11 Rutgers/Notre Dame First Four winner (West) — 28.5%
- 12 Wyoming/Indiana First Four winner (East) — 23.0%
- 13 Vermont (West) — 21.6%
Round of 32 (7-seeds or lower picked in at least 10% of the brackets to advance to the Sweet 16)
- 11 Virginia Tech (East) — 19.1%
- 8 North Carolina (East) — 14.5%
- 7 Michigan State (West) — 13.5%
- 11 Michigan (South) — 12.5%
- 7 Ohio State (South) — 11.2%
- 7 USC (Midwest) — 11.2%
- 10 Loyola-Chicago (South) — 11.0%
- 7 Murray State (East) — 10.8%
Sweet 16 (6-seeds or lower picked in at least 5% of brackets to reach the Elite 8)
- 8 North Carolina (East) — 7.2%
- 6 Alabama (West) — 7.1%
- 6 LSU (Midwest) — 6.9%
- 11 Virginia Tech (East) —6.0%
- 7 Michigan State (West) — 5.4%
Elite Eight (5-seeds or lower picked in at least 2% of brackets to reach Final Four)
- 5 Iowa (Midwest) — 12.1%
- 5 Houston (South) — 6.4%
- 8 North Carolina (East) — 2.8%
- 5 UConn (West) — 2.6%
- 11 Virginia Tech (East) — 2.3%
- 6 LSU (Midwest) — 2.3%