Zags also rank high in internet speeds, test reveals

Not only are the Zags the No. 1 seeded team in the West region, Gonzaga University has one of the fastest campus network speeds in the Sweet 16.

That’s according to Speedtest, which ranked network speeds for universities participating in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

The University of North Carolina had the fastest speeds, with downloads and uploads of 410 to 381 megabits per second, Speedtest said.

“The internet is so fast that even if every single student at UNC Chapel Hill decides to stream the next game on their individual devices, buffering would not be a problem,” company officials said Tuesday in a news release.

The Zags and University of Michigan are in good shape, too, Speedtest said.

Gonzaga was No. 2, with downloads and uploads of 247 to 286 megabits per second. Michigan was third, while Kentucky ranked last at 15th, with uploads and downloads of 73 to 72 megabits per second. That’s still faster than the national average of 70 megabits per second, Speedtest noted.

Speedtest didn’t collect enough data from Xavier University for a ranking.

Seattle-based Speedtest is a web service that provides free analysis of internet access performance metrics.

Speedtest tested the university networks over the past 90 days, checking download and upload speeds on desktop computers and mobile tests using Wi-Fi.

Network speed matters when you’re watching a close game, Speedtest officials said. It determines if “you’re cheering in time with the rest of the world,” or if you’re waiting “agonizing moments” to see if your team made it to the next round, they said.