NCAA Tournament: 5 key storylines for Florida Atlantic vs San Diego State matchup

Highest combined seeds since 2018

While you could make a pretty foolproof argument that both of these teams were underseeded by the tournament committee, the fact remains that this game will feature the highest combined seeds since 3-seed Michigan beat 11-seed Loyola-Chicago in 2018.

Sadly, this game doesn’t feature any exuberant nonagenarian nuns, but what Saturday’s matchup lacks in convent-ionality, it makes up for with, well, a lack of conventionality [dodges tomato]. We’ve all seen the blue bloods battle on the game’s biggest stage, but I always enjoy when a new fighter enters the ring.

The fact that either the Owls or Aztecs will be playing for the national championship on Monday begs the question: is this the beginning of a new era for college basketball? NIL and the transfer portal have opened Pandora’s parity box, making it much more likely than ever that lower-seeded teams will continue to crash the party.

The blue bloods thrive on the status quo, but with the chance for teams to completely remake their roster from year to year, plus traditional powers’ decreased likelihood of keeping dominant teams together for any real length of time, the age of the upstart may be upon us. The gap between the haves and have-nots has never been shorter than it is right now, and Florida Atlantic and San Diego State are the poster children.

Don’t be surprised to see plenty more crooked number seeds crashing the Final Four in years to come.