2026 March Madness bracket expert picks: Picking all 63 NCAA Tournament games and why each team could win

Here's who will win each game of the 2026 NCAA Tournament - and why each team could come out on top

Zachary Pereles

Mar 19, 2026

1:32 am ET

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9 min read

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One March, when I was in middle school, I raced to the school bus and pulled out my cellphone. It was March Madness, and instead of being able to sit at home and watch basketball all day, I had been forced to go to school. The horror!

This was before smart phones, of course. I knew even spending a minute or two trying to fetch the Internet on this now-archaic flip phone would cost a bazillion dollars ... and that I would barely be able to decipher the scores on the tiny screen displaying a not-mobile-friendly website ... and that my parents would question why they had a huge charge on the phone bill. But I couldn't resist. I was hooked. How was my bracket doing? I had to know. Sorry, mom and dad.

Fast forward to 2025, and all of that obsessing paid off. I won't lie: Last year's bracket was ... really good. I got multiple "thank you" messages from people who had won bracket pools by copying it, and that filled me with as much joy as me winning my own bracket pools. OK, not really. But it did mean a lot.

Years like last year only come around every once in a while. I have been watching a ton of college hoops for years. I have never done as well as I did last year. I might never do as well as I did last year. Think of everything that has to go right in a bracket. Florida had to pull off so many comebacks last year. If one of those comebacks doesn't happen, my bracket stinks. Same for Derik Queen's buzzer beater, Duke's stunning collapse against Houston, etc. etc. etc.

Basically, you can do all the work and still get it wrong. That's March Madness. That's basketball. That's life.

But the work still matters. Watching a lifetime-high amount of college basketball last year did help. So did all the research. I watched a ton of games, consulted a bunch of websites and learned from my excellent colleagues at CBS Sports, who have done a tremendous job this year. Luck, they say, is when preparation meets opportunity.

Then comes the hard part: Actually making the picks. There are so many things to consider, but at the end of the day, you have to chose one victor, over and over again. Somewhere along the way, I started doing 63 picks in 63 sentences. Boil it down and pick a winner.

I haven't watched as much college basketball this year -- I'm now an NFL writer here at CBS Sports -- but I've still watched a lot. I still have my principles: Good guards win in March, experience matters, versatility is crucial, yada yada yada.

So let's give it another spin: 63 picks, 63 sentences. Let's make middle-school me proud again.

Fill out your brackets now and enter them into our Bracket Challenge for your chance to win a dream trip to the 2027 Final FourⓇ.

Mark Mitchell will try and lead No. 10 seed Mizzou to a win over No. 7 seed Miami.

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First round

East

- (1) Duke over (16) Siena: Duke's injuries worry me, but not yet.

- (8) Ohio State over (9) TCU: Bruce Thornton is finally in the NCAA Tournament in his fourth season with the Buckeyes, and he'll make it count.

- (5) St. John's over (12) Northern Iowa: The Panthers will make it tough with their slow pace, but Zuby Ejiofor will be too much to handle.

- (4) Kansas over (13) Cal Baptist: The Jayhawks are the hardest No. 4 seed to project given Darryn Peterson's stop-and-start year and the team-wide inconsistency, too.

- (6) Louisville over (11) South Florida: I was really high on the Cardinals entering the season, but they haven't come close to being the sum of their parts; I'll take them here, though, thanks to Ryan Conwell.

- (3) Michigan State over (14) North Dakota State: The Spartans are too big, too tough and too athletic.

- (7) UCLA over (10) UCF: The Bruins' guards lead the way here.

- (2) UConn over (15) Furman: The Paladins have pulled upsets before, but it won't happen here.

West

- (1) Arizona over (16) Long Island: The Wildcats keep rolling.

- (9) Utah State over (8) Villanova: The Aggies' duo of M.J. Collins Jr. and Mason Falslev lead the way.

- (5) Wisconsin over (12) High Point: Nick Boyd and John Blackwell form one of the best guard tandems in the nation, and Nolan Winter's return will be key.

- (4) Arkansas over (13) Hawaii: Welcome to the Darius Acuff show, and what a show it is.

- (6) BYU over (11) Texas: Welcome to the AJ Dybantsa show, and what a show it is.

- (3) Gonzaga over (14) Kennesaw State: Graham Ike looks to cap a tremendous career with a deep March Madness run.

- (10) Missouri over (7) Miami: Mark Mitchell and T.O. Barrett are relentless on offense, and the Tigers have the length and strength to hold up on defense.

- (2) Purdue over (15) Queens: Are the Big Ten champions hitting their stride at the right time after an up-