Ranking the NCAA Teams by Victory Thrill Factor

Not these guys. Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

The glory and fun of the NCAA Tournament, for the casual fan, lies in its potential for upsets: We all want the underdog to take down the established brand names. We, essentially, want to see Lehigh beat Duke. When the tournament tips off at 12:15 this afternoon, you will be cheering for schools you’ve never heard of in towns you’d never dream of visiting, and it will be outstanding. But we wanted to help you, casual fan, have a better idea of just how excited to be by any potential upset on the board. We thought we’d put together a list, in order, of the most exciting teams to see win in the next two days.

Now, several factors went into the making of this list.

• Historic import: No 16 seed has ever beaten a 1 seed. So that would be a big deal.
• Likability of the winning team: St. Louis, for a myriad of reasons, will be more fun to watch win than, say, Ohio State.
• Unlikability of the losing team: We’re talking mostly about Duke here.
• Local rootability: We’re aware that a ton of people we work with went to Syracuse.

So, let’s get to it: The 64 teams in order of enjoyment one should receive from their victory.

1. Albany
2. James Madison
3. North Carolina A&T
4. Iona
5. Pacific
6. Florida Gulf Coast
7. South Dakota State
8. Northwestern State
9. Valparaiso
10. Davidson
11. Belmont
12. Harvard
13. Western Kentucky
14. Bucknell
15. Southern
16. Butler
17. Akron
18. Montana
19. Syracuse
20. Mississippi
21. St. Louis
22. La Salle
23. St. Mary’s
24. Virginia Commonwealth
25. New Mexico
26. Illinois
27. Villanova
28. Oregon
29. Wichita State
30. California
31. Temple
32. Iowa State
33. San Diego State
34. New Mexico State
35. Gonzaga
36. Creighton
37. Oklahoma
38. Colorado
39. UCLA
40. UNLV
41. North Carolina State
42. Pittsburgh
43. Oklahoma State
44. Wisconsin
45. Kansas State
46. Memphis
47. Missouri
48. Colorado State
49. Cincinnati
50. Arizona
51. Marquette
52. Notre Dame
53. Minnesota
54. North Carolina
55. Georgetown
56. Michigan
57. Florida
58. Michigan State
59. Ohio State
60. Miami (Fla.)
61. Kansas
62. Louisville
63. Indiana
64. Duke (obviously)