For just the second time in the history of the men’s NCAA tournament, a No. 16 seed upset a No. 1 seed as huge underdog Fairleigh Dickinson took down Purdue. The stunning victory came five years and one day after the UMBC Retrievers knocked off the No. 1 overall seed Virginia in 2018.
FDU’s journey to the win was incredible in a lot of ways, including the fact that the Knights didn’t even win their own conference. Thanks to some quirky NCAA rules that require teams to sit out a transition period when making the leap to Division I, the NEC tournament winner Merrimack had to stay home and watch FDU — which finished second — head to the First Four in Dayton and then on to the first round.
