| 100% | UVA | 3 | #1 seed that lost in the first round of 2018's NCAA tournament |
| 48% | ONEANDDONE | 10 | Like a team that loses in the first round |
| 36% | POOLE | 5 | Jordan who was drafted in the first round of the 2019 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors |
| 35% | SAYONARA | 8 | Song played in the first and last episodes of "M*A*S*H" that's also called the "Japanese 32-Across Song" |
| 34% | ALA | 3 | Southern state that's first alphabetically in a list of the 50 states: Abbr. |
| 34% | SEMIFINAL | 9 | Game in the next-to-last round of a tournament |
| 34% | SHOE | 4 | First thing lost in the "For Want of a Nail" proverb |
| 34% | HAN | 3 | First name of Solo in the 2018 movie "Solo" |
| 34% | OHIOSTATE | 9 | Women's hockey team that won the NCAA Tournament championship in 2022 but lost to 36-Across in 2023 (2 wds.) |
| 33% | WEST | 4 | One of four regions in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament |
| 32% | PSALM | 5 | The first one begins "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly" |
| 32% | WHICH | 5 | Publication of the Consumers' Association that first appeared in October 1957 |
| 32% | THESISSTATEMENT | 15 | Sentence that often appears in the first paragraph of an essay |
| 32% | TOOMUCHHEAVEN | 13 | Song that was the first of three #1 singles by 42-Across in 1979 (3 wds.) |
| 32% | AERO | 4 | Prefix that's at the start of the first "A" in "NASA" |
| 32% | CMA | 3 | Group that named Keith Urban Entertainer of the Year in 2018: Abbr. |
| 32% | ARMS | 4 | The first word of Virgil's Aeneid in some English translations |
| 32% | IOWA | 4 | State that's home to Drake University, a #11 seed in the 2025 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament |
| 32% | TUE | 3 | The first of two T's, in a familiar sequence |
| 31% | EZRA | 4 | Book that begins "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia ..." |
| 31% | ALE | 3 | Name of the Squirrelfish on "FishCenter Live" that sadly passed away in 2018 |
| 31% | ARK | 3 | Lost object that was raided in the first Indiana Jones movie |
| 31% | WIN | 3 | Premiering in 2025! "___ or Lose," Pixar's animated TV series that captures the ups and downs of a middle school softball team |
| 31% | SEE | 3 | Word in the first line of the U.S. national anthem |
| 31% | QUICKBOXER | 10 | One knocking out an opponent in the first round? |
| 31% | OLE | 3 | Spanish interjection that's the first word in the lyrics of the song "Hot Hot Hot" |
| 31% | MIDDLE | 6 | ___ Sunday, traditional day of rest during the Wimbledon tournament that was stopped in 2022 |
| 31% | PATRICKMAHOMES | 14 | Kansas City Chiefs quarterback picked in Round 1 of the 2017 draft: 2 wds. |
| 31% | ALI | 3 | Name of the storm that generated 102 mph winds in Scotland in September 2018 |
| 31% | SUP | 3 | Publishing arm of the California school that admitted its first students in 1891 (abbr.) |