The most-picked March Madness champion every year since 2014

Every year, No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the NCAA men’s bracket get most of the championship picks among Bracket Challenge Game players. But sometimes one team takes up so much attention that there’s a sizable gap among the most-picked choices. Other years, BCG users spread out the selections.

Here’s a look at the most picked Bracket Challenge Game championship winners, going back to 2014. We also list the champion and its percentage — if that winner wasn’t the same as the most-chosen champ.

2024
The most popular pick (and champion): UConn — 26.09 percent

The Huskies repeated as national champs and became the first title team to be the most-picked BCG champ since Villanova in 2018. UConn was the No. 1 overall seed and the runaway top choice for bracket fillers, as Houston was a distant second (champion on 10.94 percent of brackets). Huskies romped to another title, winning their six games by 39, 17, 30, 25, 14 and 15 points.

2023
The most popular pick: Houston — 20.18 percent
The champ: UConn — 2.08 percent

Houston was the top pick to win it all, entering the tournament tied for the most wins of any team in the country. Yet, the Cougars fell in the Sweet 16 in a loss to No. 5 Miami.

The eventual champion UConn Huskies had the 11th-most brackets pick them to win the championship at 2.08 percent.

2022
The most popular pick: Gonzaga — 30.26 percent
The champ: Kansas — 7.87 percent

Gonzaga was the top pick for the second year in a row, as the Bulldogs were the No. 1 overall seed again. But Gonzaga fell in the Sweet 16 in an upset loss to No. 4 Arkansas.

The eventual champion Kansas Jayhawks weren’t far down the list — at 7.87 percent, KU was the third-most popular selection among BCG brackets. For reference, No. 1 Arizona was second at 13.76.

2021
The most popular pick: Gonzaga — 38.84 percent
The champ: Baylor — 8.44 percent

Gonzaga almost became the sport’s first undefeated champion since Indiana in 1975-76. The Bulldogs entered the tournament unbeaten and reached the title game before falling to Baylor. Those Bears were the third-most popular pick — but you can see the gap between the two (and Illinois, the No. 2 favorite pick at 15.70 percent)

2019
The most popular pick: Duke — 39.12 percent
The champ: Virginia — 5.86 percent

Duke seemingly had it all. The Blue Devils won the ACC tournament title, were 29-5, grabbed the No. 1 overall seed — and had Zion Williamson, R.J. Barrett and others. Add that all up and more than 39 percent of BCG players picked Duke to cut down the nets. The Blue Devils had close calls with No. 9 UCF and No. 4 Virginia Tech before falling to No. 2 Michigan State in an Elite Eight thriller.

Virginia, the ACC regular-season champ, went all the way on only 5.86 percent of BCG brackets. But one year after UVA lost to UMBC in the historic 16-over-1 shocker, the Cavaliers won their first national…