What is An Upset?

Everybody talks about upsets in the NCAA Tournament. Most people think its just a higher seed beating a lower seed. Not correct. In order to be a true upset, the seed difference has to be at least 2.

A 3 beating a 2 is not an upset. A 8 beating a 1 is. In fact a 4 beating a 1 is. 3 over 1, upset, 5 over 4, no upset. The larger the difference the bigger the upset.

An exception may be made if a low #2 beats a high #1 as the #1s tend to be disproportionately better than a #2 vs the small amount a #3 might be better than a #4.

In polite conversation it is permissible to refer to a 3 beating a 2 as an upset even though we know different.