But the trends are towards a high-digit seed winning the NC. Last year Butler in the final was a #8 and VCU in the FF was a #11, and once you get there, anything can happen. From the years before going back to 1979 when the tourney at least began to have 40 teams, the higher-digit seed stars have been:
2006 - George Mason (11) in FF
2000 - UNC (8) and Wisconisn in (FF)
1986 - LSU (11) in FF
1985 - Villanova (8) won NC
1984 - Virginia (7) in FF
1980 - UCLA (8) lost in NC
1979 - Penn (9) in FF
A #9 seed is really due at this point.