The Ultimate 64: Deciding the greatest all-time NCAA champion - Midwest Region

The Ultimate 64 is an undertaking which will determine the greatest NCAA tournament champion of all time from a field made up exclusively of NCAA tournament champions.

The teams will be judged based on record, quality of wins, overall talent, star power and entertainment value, among other criteria. 

The teams have been divided into regions based on their geographical location. First up: The Midwest Region.

Ultimate 64 Schedule

Midwest Region
West Region
East Region
South Region
Final Four

Midwest Region

Click here to view full bracket.

Round of 64

A lot of favorites flexed their muscles in the opening round, with the 1989 Michigan squad downing the 1962 Cincinnati Bearcats in the lone upset. That Wolverines team doesn't get the respect it deserves, with the Fab Five arriving in Ann Arbor not long after and stealing its thunder. All five starters averaged double digits in scoring. Glen Rice led the way with 25.6 points per game. ... With five teams in the field, Indiana puts three through to the second round, including a pair of Bob Knight-coached squads. ... Wisconsin's lone championship team falls by the wayside in favor of the only Kansas team to advance. Meanwhile, Ohio State's lone championship squad gets through.

Round of 32

The 1953 Indiana Hoosiers just keep finding other Indiana squads across from them. Bob Knight's 1981 team, led by point guard Isiah Thomas, won each of its tournament games by at least 13 points. ... The 2008 Kansas Jayhawks won 37 games that season, the most by a title-winning team at the time, but that's not enough to get by the Earvin "Magic" Johnson-led 1979 Michigan State Spartans, who upended Larry Bird's undefeated Indiana State Sycamores in the national title game. ... In just the second upset of the first two rounds, the 2000 Michigan State Spartans knock off the 1960 Ohio State Buckeyes. The lone title-winning Buckeyes team won each of its tournament games by at least 20 points, but Tom Izzo knows his way around the month of March.

Sweet Sixteen

Funny the way these things work out. A couple Indiana squads facing off on one side of the bracket, and a couple from Michigan State on the other. ... The 1976 Indiana Hoosiers completed a two-year stretch in which the team went 63-1 by winning the national title. Nearly four decades later, it's still the last undefeated champion. ... The 2000 Spartans won each of their tournament games by double digits, but the 1979 squad had all the star power. Mateen Cleaves just isn't Magic Johnson.

Elite Eight

Magic Johnson's Spartans were able to get by an undefeated Indiana State team, but had they faced Bob Knight's undefeated Hoosiers, the result likely would have been different. That year, Indiana won its games by an average margin of 17.3 points, getting 23.5 points per game from Naismith College Player of the Year Scott May.

Images courtesy Sports Illustrated.