Growing up a massive sports fan, every time March Madness rolled around, it felt like a gift from the basketball gods. A chaotic three weeks of last-second heroics and Cinderella stories. You never knew what was going to happen, and not even the best experts in the game had a clue. That was the best part.
When No. 11 seed Loyola University of Chicago became a national sensation by reaching the Final Four in 2018 through multiple last-second game-winning shots, fans around the country couldn’t keep their eyes off the screen. Usually, runs like these were accompanied by an emerging March Madness legend, like the duo of Max Abmas and Kevin Obanor at Oral Roberts University in 2021, who together miraculously carried the No. 15 seed to the Sweet Sixteen.
But with name, image and likeness rules and the transfer portal, money is consolidating the top talent to the highest bidders, and it seems that these Cinderella stories might be a thing of the past. We might never see a No. 12 seed make it past the Sweet Sixteen again.
Don’t get me wrong, it was an extremely entertaining March.
Vanderbilt University vs. the University of Nebraska was one of the best basketball games I’ve ever watched. No. 1 seed University of Florida was taken down by No. 9 seed University of Iowa in a thrilling upset.
The University of Kentucky’s Otega Oweh hit an absurd shot from just inside half-court to force overtime and eventually advance. Duke University vs. the University of Connecticut game was one for the ages, with UConn coming back from a 19-point deficit, culminating in this Braylon Mullins shot that was nothing short of one of the greatest plays in sports history.
There’s no doubt we’re seeing some damn good basketball. It’s hard for fans to complain about a Duke vs. UConn Elite Eight game like that, or about seeing the top talent face off against each other in the later stages of the tournament.
But is the Cinderella story, the reason that so many people yearn for March every year, completely lost?
Even the “underdog” stories of this year — No. 11 seed University of Texas in the Sweet Sixteen, No. 9 seed Iowa and No. 6 seed University of Tennessee in the Elite Eight — are all powerhouse sports schools with loads of money to give to their players.
The only stories that could resemble a Cinderella are those of High Point University and Virginia Commonwealth University, who had thrilling first-round wins but, in the end, only got past one round of the tournament.
As one head coach at a Division I mid-major program told ESPN: “A lot of us at our level lose all these players to a higher level and don’t have the money to replace them. The tournament upsets aren’t happening anymore because there’s just such a big gap in money.”
Take the Tulane University Green Wave, for example. Tulane’s star player, Rowan Brumbaugh, has just announced he’s entering the transfer portal. Tulane’s ability to compete with high-level programs is greatly diminished with the loss of its star, as he likely moves on to a major team with a lot of cold, hard cash to spend on him.
If Brumbaugh had stayed, maybe the team would’ve clicked next year and made a run at the tournament, but unfortunately, like many other programs losing their stars to top-ranked teams, we’ll never know.
The University of Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg transferred from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and turned down the 2025 NBA Draft for a reported $3 million NIL package. Kentucky assembled what was reportedly the most expensive roster in college basketball history and still lost in the opening weekend.
This is a system where even spending big offers no guarantee, but spending small almost certainly means going home early.
The 2026 bracket produced just four wins by double-digit seeds in the first round — the lowest total since 2007. For the second straight year, not a single team seeded 13th or lower survived opening weekend. Not one.
The Final Four teams, the University of Illinois, UConn, Michigan and the University of Arizona, are among the top 25 in NIL collective spending in the country.
What’s lost isn’t just the potential for an upset or an exciting game. What’s lost is the very soul of the tournament, the reason that many sports lovers consider it the pinnacle of sports fandom. The soul of March Madness is the unpredictability of it, the idea that for the three weeks in March, no one knows what’s going to happen.
An executive order signed on April 3 directed federal agencies to evaluate college sports practices, targeting NIL arrangements that resemble pay-for-play without a legitimate business justification, and set an Aug. 1, 2026, target date for updated rules. Whether that produces real reform or just noise remains to be seen.
Until then, the Cinderella story of March Madness seems to be on life support.