Dick Tarrant’s Richmond Spiders were famous giant killers: in 1984, Richmond downed Charles Barkley and Auburn; four years later, defending champ Indiana got caught up in their web. The ’91 upset of Syracuse, however, was Richmond’s greatest hit. The Spiders became the first 15-seed to down a number two seed. More importantly, it was the first year that CBS had the rights to the opening round of the tournament. Richmond shocked the world, in prime time, on network television, and CBS has paid the NCAA billions to keep every game on its airwaves since.
Top 10 NCAA Tournament First Round Upsets
The bands. The buzzer-beaters. The unproductive offices. Must be the start of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. To mark this year's edition, we scoured the record books to select the 10 best first round upsets in tournament history
(15) Richmond 73, (2) Syracuse 69, 1991
Full List
March Madness
- (13) Princeton 43, (4) UCLA 41, 1996
- (15) Richmond 73, (2) Syracuse 69, 1991
- (15) Hampton 58, (2) Iowa State 57, 2001
- (14) Cleveland State 83, (3) Indiana 79, 1986
- (13) Valparaiso 70, (4) Mississippi 69, 1998
- (15) Santa Clara 64, (2) Arizona 61, 1993
- (14) Northwestern State 64, (3) Iowa 63, 2006
- (13) Vermont 60, (4) Syracuse 57, 2005
- (14) Bucknell 64, (3) Kansas 63, 2005
- (14) Austin Peay 68, (3) Illinois 67, 1987