March Madness Cinderella Stories Send Applications Soaring

Joe McIntire spent 11 hours on a bus, traveling more than 800 miles to see his school’s basketball team play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last March. The 20-year-old sophomore’s beloved Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles lost 83-67 to the North Carolina Tar Heels. Back on the bus he went, for another dozen or so hours. The loss didn’t sting too much, though: McIntire is planning to go back to the tournament this year.

“Me and my friends found out about FGCU when we were watching March Madness,” he said. The New Jersey native had never heard of the school, which was established in the 1990s, prior to the 2013 National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament. That was the year the Eagles, seeded 15th out of 16 teams in their region, upset Georgetown 78-68. Then they beat the No. 7 seed, San Diego State, advancing to the Sweet 16, before finally succumbing to No. 3 seed Florida. “I thought they were going to get destroyed in the second round,” McIntire said. “It was just funny how such a small school could go out and beat a 2 seed.” He applied to the college the following year and enrolled in 2015.