Ranking the March Madness final four teams
Photo courtesy of Hayden Schiff / Wikimedia Commons
Duke enters the Final Four as the top-ranked team in the nation, led by National Player of the Year Cooper Flagg and a deep, battle-tested roster. With dominant play all season, Duke is the clear favorite to cut down the nets in this year's historic March Madness.
The 2025 March Madness tournament is unique compared to previous years, as for the first time since 2008, all four one-seed teams will represent their regions in the final four. The four teams in question are the Auburn Tigers, Duke Blue Devils, Florida Gators, and Houston Cougars. Surprisingly, all four of the definitive four best teams going into the tournament made it to the final four. Here are the final four teams ranked from worst to best.
Number Four- Florida Gators
The difficult part of ranking these final four teams is that all of them are elite. Putting the Gators at number four seems outlandish, but they are against the best competition. The Gators have played some amazing competition en route to the final four, but that should not be used as a tactic to explain the close games they played throughout the tournament. Florida played a game against number eight-seeded University of Connecticut (UConn) to the last shot and was even trailing number three-seeded Texas Tech late into the second half until they pulled away to end the game. You have to nitpick between the four best teams in the country, so Florida is, unfortunately, the worst team in the final four.
Number Three- Houston Cougars
The Houston Cougars are the third-best team in the final four. Houston has been unbelievable thus far, with only one hiccup throughout the tournament, coming from their close victory against number-eight-seeded Gonzaga. Houston is on an incredible 27-1 run, dating back to the non-conference portion of the college basketball season. Houston’s unbelievable defense and strong senior cast make them the third-best team in the final four.
Number Two- Auburn Tigers
The Auburn Tigers would likely be everyone’s worst team in the final four. The Tigers have turned into somewhat of an underrated team throughout the tournament. Auburn was granted the number one overall seed in the tournament despite losing in the semi-finals of their conference tournament. Auburn has a plethora of experienced seniors, who score double-digits and are members of this seed for a reason. Auburn has faced a ton of adversity to end this season and deserves to be recognized as the second-best team in the final four.
Number One- Duke Blue Devils
This is a pretty obvious choice. Duke could have been argued to be the number one overall seed after going 31-3 in the regular season and winning their conference tournament. There isn’t a flaw with this Duke team. They have the National Player of the Year in freshman Cooper Flagg, experienced seniors up and down their roster, and more National Basketball Association (NBA) talent behind Cooper Flagg. Duke is currently the highest-rated team in KenPom history by a wide margin, a statistical database proving its capability to show the best teams in the country. Duke is recognized by many as the best team in all of college basketball, and deservingly so.
This year's edition of March Madness was very “chalky,” to say the least. Although this may anger some fans who enjoy the unpredictability of March Madness, these four teams are the best in the country and will make for the most compelling scenario possible. This year's March Madness winner will undoubtedly earn the right to be called the National Champions.