The 2017 NCAA tournament bracket is out, and that means it's time to pick some Cinderellas and Final Four favorites.
This is our annual reminder: Play the percentages when filling out your bracket past the first two rounds.
There will be upsets in the first weekend, but chalk tends to be the story from the Sweet 16 to the Final Four and ultimately in the championship game. Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 19 of the 32 national champions were No. 1 seeds.
MORE: Print your 2017 NCAA Tournament bracket here
Here's a seeding breakdown of the participants in the Sweet 16, Final Four and championship game in the expanded bracket era.
NCAA Tournament bracket tips: Play the odds
Sweet 16 by seed
No. 1: 86.8 (111 out of 128)
No. 8: 9.4 (12 out of 128)
No. 9: 3.9 (5 out of 128)
No. 16: 0 (0 out of 128)
No. 2: 63.2 (81 out of 128)
No. 7: 18.0 (23 out of 128)
No. 10: 18.0 (23 out of 128)
No. 15: 0.8 (1 out of 128)
No. 3: 50.8 (65 out of 128)
No. 6: 32.8 (42 out of 128)
No. 11: 14.8 (19 out of 128)
No. 14: 1.6 (2 out of 128)
No. 4: 46.1 (59 out of 128)
No. 5: 33.6 (43 out of 128)
No. 12: 15.6 (20 out of 128)
No. 13: 4.7 (6 out of 128)
It's a fact: Seeds 1-8 make up 85.2 percent of the Sweet 16. Seeds 9-16 make up 14.8 percent of the Sweet 16.
Final Four by seed
No. 1: 40.6 (52 of 128)
No. 2: 21.1 (27 of 128)
No. 3: 11.7 (15 of 128)
No. 4: 10.2 (13 of 128)
No. 5: 4.7 (6 of 128)
No. 6: 2.3(3 of 128)
No. 7: 1.6 (2 of 128)
No. 8: 3.9 (5 of 128)
No. 9: 0.8 (1 of 128)
No. 10: 0.8 (1 of 128)
No. 11: 2.3 (3 of 128)
It's a fact: The top 16 seeds in tournament — of the teams seeded No. 1-4 — have an 83.6 percent chance of making the Final Four. Only 21 teams seeded lower than No. 4 have made the Final Four since 1985.
Making the championship by seed
No. 1: 48.4 (31 of 64)
No. 2: 18.8 (12 of 64)
No. 3: 14.1 (9 of 64)
No. 4: 4.7 (3 of 64)
No. 5: 4.7 (3 of 64)
No. 6: 3.1 (2 of 64)
No. 7: 1.6 (1 of 64)
No. 8: 4.8 (3 of 64)
It's a fact: No team ranked lower than a No. 8 seed has made the championship game in the 64-team era. Villanova (1985), Butler (2011) and Kentucky (2014) are the No. 8 seeds to make the championship game.
National champions by seed
No. 1: 59.4 (19 of 32)
No. 2: 15.6 (5 of 32)
No. 3: 12.5 (4 of 32)
No. 4: 3.1 (1 of 32)
No. 6: 3.1 (1 of 32)
No. 7: 3.1 (1 of 32)
No. 8: 3.1 (1 of 32)
It's a fact: 75 percent of the national champions in the expanded bracket era were either a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. Connecticut, which won the tournament as a No. 3 in 2011 and as a No. 7 in 2014, is the only champion in the past 10 years that wasn't a No. 1 or No. 2.
