Every March, millions of people around the world attempt to make the perfect March madness bracket. People spend a crazy amount of time studying college basketball to try and do the impossible. This year nearly 40 million people around the world made a bracket but no bracket made it past the sweet 16.

In prior years, low seeds often upset some of the best teams in the country, which made  picking everything correct almost impossible. Teams like Loyola Chicago in 2018, St. Peters in 2022, and Oakland in 2024 have had past success with upsetting many top seeds and busting everyone’s bracket. However,  this year is different, as the final four consists of all one seeds: Auburn, Duke, Florida, and Houston.  

“I picked a lot of higher seeds in my bracket so my bracket ended up shaping up not awful but on day one with 12 seed McNeese taking down 5 seed clemson, I had Clemson going to the final four so that one really hurt my bracket and demolished the confidence of my brackett from day one,” said basketball manager Sam Richardson. 

This year there are many reasons why the final four are only one seeds; a lot depends on the outcome of the tournament. One reason is that all four of these teams are simply very talented and not many teams in the country can match up with them. Just about every seed lower than ten got blown out this year in the first round by some of the better teams in the country because they could not  compete with all the big powerhouse schools anymore. The top basketball schools can offer millions of dollars to recruits while the smaller schools can offer some money but nothing close to the top seeds. 

The reality of the fact is that Name Image and Likeness (NIL) has changed college culture forever. NIL gives athletes the opportunity to make money through endorsements and personal brands. For example athletes around the world can be paid for memorabilia, autographs, and camps all while playing the sport they love at the school they desire. 

“I think that the NIL and transfer portal has hurt things like March madness because mid-majors have importantly been impacted,” said assistant principal and basketball fan Christopher Kobs. 

Before NIL and the transfer portal, anybody could beat anybody and there was never a solidified “best team.” This year, however, after NIL and the transfer portal were implemented, all one seeds made the final four for the first time since 2008, which shows the impact NIL has on colleges all around the world. The top basketball schools in the country can offer so much money to a young high school kid because the school has donors, a larger network of boosters, and businesses that are willing to put their money into the program. 

This year the final four is loaded with talent, and any team has a chance to win. Players like Cooper Flagg and Tyrese Proctor of Duke, Johni Broome of Auburn, Walter Clayton Jr of Florida, and Milos Uzan of Houston can easily take over the rest of this tournament and win their college a national championship. A silver lining in the NIL and transfer portal situation is the amount of talent that each one seed has. In previous years, teams have had one or two players that were by far the best, but now all of the leading teams are stacked with players who all can  play and dominate a game. 

“Tyrese Proctor is the glue to the Duke team, when he’s on, Duke will win it all. Cooper Flagg is obviously the best player in college basketball and he’ll be known for a long time. I think Milos Uzan is one of the most underrated college basketball players, Walter Clayton Jr is one of the best players in the country and will succeed in the NBA. Johnni Broome is a very overrated player in my opinion and although he’s a good player, he won’t do anything in the NBA,” said junior basketball player Danny Karas. 

Ultimately, March is one of the most exciting times for sports fans all over the world and the NIL and transfer portal will only affect college basketball more in the future. This year, my prediction is that Duke and Florida will play against each other in the national championship and either Cooper Flagg or Walter Clayton Jr will go off and win their respective universities a championship.