March Madness: Who was the last No. 9 seed to reach the Final Four?

The Florida Atlantic Owls’ Cinderella run in March Madness continued against the Kansas State Wildcats, and they are set to travel to NRG Stadium to compete in their first ever Final Four.

The Florida Atlantic Owls, the Conference USA champions of both the regular season and the conference tournament, made it to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history this year, doing so as a No. 9 seed.

In their first tournament game since 2002, they pulled off the upset against the No. 8 seed Memphis Tigers to secure their first ever tournament victory, and they took care of business against the No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson Knights to advance to the second weekend.

In the Sweet 16, they pulled off another upset against the No. 4 seed Tennessee Volunteers, and they rallied to beat the No. 3 seed Kansas State Wildcats in the Elite 8, overcoming a historic performance from superstar Markquis Nowell to secure their first ever trip to the Final Four.

The Owls, one of three teams in this year’s Final Four to have never previously made it to the final weekend of the tournament, are the first team to advance to the Final Four as a No. 9 seed in a decade.

A Final Four run by a No. 9 seed was last pulled off by the Wichita State Shockers in 2013 March Madness.

Gregg Marshall’s program defeated the No. 8 seed Pittsburgh Panthers before pulling off a monumental upset over the No. 1 seed Gonzaga Bulldogs.

In the Sweet 16, they took care of business against the No. 13 La Salle Explorers before pulling off another big upset over the No. 2 seed Ohio State Buckeyes in the Elite 8.

Their Cinderella run, which ultimately set them up for additional success in 2014 (undefeated regular season) and 2015 (beating the in-state rival Kansas Jayhawks for a trip to the Sweet 16), unfortunately came to an end in the Final Four, when they were narrowly defeated by the No. 1 overall seed — and eventual national champions — Louisville Cardinals.

Before the Shockers reached the Final Four 10 years ago, no No. 9 seed had been to the Final Four since 1979, which was the year when seeding was introduced. The Penn Quakers pulled it off that year.

However, there have been teams seeded lower than No. 9 to make it to the Final Four before. Five teams are tied with the lowest seed to ever do it, all at No. 11. The LSU Tigers did it in 1986, the George Mason Patriots did it in 2006, the VCU Rams did it in 2011, the Loyola Chicago Ramblers did it in 2018, and the UCLA Bruins did it in 2021.

VCU and UCLA did it with five wins, not four, since they had to win their First Four play-in games just to get into the round of 64.

No team seeded lower than No. 8 has ever made it to the National Championship Game, so Florida Atlantic will have an opportunity to make history in Saturday night’s game against the No. 5 seed San Diego State Aztecs.