Bradley was another example in the same tournament, having been assigned the 13th seed in their region, only to upset Kansas and Pitt to reach the "Sweet 16" round, where the Braves were finally ousted by top-seeded Memphis.
In ESPN's bracket challenge, over 42%[1] picked Kansas to win the tournament, making Northern Iowa's upset one of the biggest in many years.
The idea was to give these non-power conference schools more exposure to national audiences than they would otherwise get, and boost their chances of being selected for the NCAA Tournament.
The concept proved greatly successful, and the 2006 edition of ESPN BracketBusters—with corporate sponsorship by eBay—featured 100 different teams playing over multiple days.
In 2006, two teams that were matched up in an ESPN BracketBusters game—Wichita State and George Mason—later faced each other in the NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen round.