Reviewing Rounds one and Two of the 2026 NCAA Tournament

Mar 17, 2026; Dayton, OH, USA; A “March Madness” branded basketball lays on the court in the second half between the Texas Longhorns and the NC State Wolfpack during a first four game of the men's 2026 NCAA Tournament at University of Dayton Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images | Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images Now that the dust has settled after the first weekend of this season’s edition of March Madness, sixteen teams remain in the running for a National Title. While all the seeds left in the big dance range from 1-seeds to 11-seed Texas, one fact has become abundantly clear in re-evaluations: power conferences (and favorites) have dominated the 2026 Tournament.

Friday’s first round action marked a historical day in Tournament history, with all 16 higher seeds emerging victorious, good for the first time since 1992 that all of the higher ranked teams have swept the full day. Additionally, fourteen games ended with margins of 20 points or more, the most in Round of 64 history. While Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday all brought their fair share of memorable March moments, Friday’s trend proved to be telling.

This tournament has not delivered us a real mid-major run, and no true Cinderella making her way to the ball that is the Sweet Sixteen (No, Texas does not count, even as an 11-seed). As much as this serves as a referendum on the current state of disparities in NIL funding from power conferences down to the smaller schools, it also gives an interesting commentary/storyline on how the transfer portal has pillaged mid-major programs. A graphic that has surfaced recently has our Michigan State Spartans highlighted as one of the only Sweet Sixteen team that has all five starters as players who began their careers at their current school.

As for conferences, the Big Ten leads the way into the second weekend, with six conference members reaching the third round out of the nine total B1G teams who qualified for March Madness. The SEC is next up, with four of ten tournament qualifiers surviving the first weekend, followed by the Big 12 with three, the Big East with two, and ACC with only Duke still standing. Let’s take a deeper dive into the performance and different records of the NCAA’s 31 qualifying conferences.