Average score of March Madness final: NCAA Tournament championship totals
As the men's NCAA Tournament approaches this week, fans are eagerly filling out their March Madness brackets and making last-minute picks and predictions about which team will ultimately triumph and lift the trophy at the Alamodome on April 7.
One often overlooked but crucial aspect of the March Madness bracket is the tiebreaker point totals for the national championship game. These totals can be the deciding factor in whether you win or lose your pool. Last year's final featured a matchup between the top-seeded UConn Huskies and the Purdue Boilermakers. The Huskies secured the title by defeating the Boilermakers 75-60 to claim their sixth NCAA Division I men's basketball championship. The total points scored in the game was 135 for the second year in a row, which is on the lower end of point totals typically seen in championship games.
Here is a point-total final estimation based on what history, a reliable predictor, has indicated:
Total points in March Madness championship games
Over the years, several March Madness championships have seen final point totals ranging from the high 150s to the low 160s, according to BetMGM. In fact, the average total points over the past 10 years is 140.2. To help you make the best decision, here is a summary of the final point totals of each game since 2014:
Totals according NCAA:
- 2024: UConn 75, Purdue 60 (135 total)
- 2023: UConn 76, San Diego State 59 (135)
- 2022: Kansas 72, North Carolina 69 (141)
- 2021: Baylor 86, Gonzaga 70 (156)
- 2019: Virginia 85, Texas Tech 77 (OT) (162)
- 2018: Villanova 79, Michigan 62 (141)
- 2017: North Carolina 71, Gonzaga 65 (136)
- 2016: Villanova 77, North Carolina 74 (151)
- 2015: Duke 68, Wisconsin 63 (131)
- 2014: UConn 60, Kentucky 54 (114)
Average score of March Madness final: NCAA championship game totals
The average score of the past 10 men's NCAA basketball championship games is 74.9-65.3, including the overtime game between Virginia and Texas Tech in 2019.