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How to Fill Out a March Madness Bracket: NCAA Tournament Bracket Guide

Esten McLaren

Last Updated: March 21, 2025 9:41 AM EDT • 4 min 3 sec read.

March Madness bracket guide
Pictured: Wilson official Evo NXT game basketballs with March Madness and Elite 8 and Sweet logo approaches the rim and net at Crypto.com Arena. Photo by: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images.

We're back with our annual March Madness guide to help you fill in your bracket. This year's tournament is expected to be as unpredictable as ever, and fans are itching to fill out their March Madness brackets once again.

You will probably have aspirations of a perfect bracket, but you'll need to nail all the March Madness upsets. We'll be here to help you win your pool with a few tips and tricks.

We also have a collection of the best FREE March Madness bracket challenges, which offer a risk-free way to vie for significant cash prizes.

📝 How to fill out a March Madness bracket

  1. Join a pool
  2. Start with a clean bracket (or even download one, if you'd like)
  3. Study our experts' March Madness bracket predictions
  4. Pick winners for the opening round by advancing them to the Round of 32
  5. Select your 16 winners in the Round of 32
  6. Choose your winners in the eight respective Sweet 16 matchups
  7. Nail down your Final Four teams with a selection for each Elite Eight showdown
  8. Advance two teams to the national championship game
  9. Pick your winner in the national title game, with a projected final score in case of a tiebreaker
  10. Submit your bracket

🏀 March Madness bracket

Download and print our FREE March Madness bracket! Here's an empty bracket you can fill in.

Auburn is the top overall seed in the tournament. Duke, Florida and Houston are the other three No. 1 seeds.

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You'll also be able to check out our breakdown of the March Madness odds and Final Four odds to help.

💡 Expert tips for filling out your bracket

Pick some upsets early

It's called March Madness for a reason. There are usually plenty of upsets during the opening weekend, at least from the perspective of seeding. By paying attention to the March Madness odds and Final Four odds, we can locate the best spots for a lower seed to win during the first round with our March Madness picks.

If a spread is within a couple of possessions, that means oddsmakers believe it will be a competitive game. Spreads of six-plus points tend to shade closer to blowout territory, so avoid those contests when trying to identify your favorite upset picks.

A No. 12 seed has advanced to the second round in 33 of the last 38 NCAA Tournaments, while a No. 13 seed has won at least one game in 11 of the previous 15 years. Here's a look at the No. 12 and 13 seeds from last year, along with their first-round opponents.

RegionUnderdogFavoriteOddsResult
South(12) James Madison(5) WisconsinWisconsin -5.5JM 72, Wisconsin 61
South(13) Vermont(4) DukeDuke -12.5Duke 64, Vermont 47
Midwest(12) McNeese(5) GonzagaGonzaga -7Gonzaga 86, McNeese 65
Midwest(13) Samford(4) KansasKansas -7.5Kansas 93, Samford 89
West(12) Grand Canyon(5) Saint Mary'sSaint Mary's -4.5Grand Canyon 75, Saint Mary's 66
West(13) Charleston(4) AlabamaAlabama -9Alabama 109, Charleston 96
East(12) UAB(5) San Diego StateSDSU -6.5San Diego 69, UAB 65
East(13) Yale(4) AuburnAuburn -13.5Yale 78, Auburn 76

Familiarize yourself with these mid-majors, and take a look at the college basketball odds to help locate those key upsets this year.

A custom graphic of our March Tourney Survivor contest with $1,000 cash to the winner!
A custom graphic of our March Tourney Survivor contest with $1,000 cash to the winner!

Go with chalk late

All four No. 1 seeds made it to the Final Four just once in tournament history, which happened in 2008 before Kansas defeated Memphis in the national championship game. That means you shouldn't be completely chalky with your Final Four picks, but the team cutting down the nets will still likely be a favorite.

A No. 1 seed has claimed 10 of the last 12 titles, including each of the last seven years. A No. 1 seed has won it all more than 65% of the time in the NCAA Tournament. A No. 2 seed has won five championships, while a No. 3 seed has secured four crowns. Teams seeded between No. 4 and No. 8 are responsible for four combined championships.

Considering how much the scoring is weighted for the final weekend, just make sure you aren't being too unique with those key selections to close out your bracket.

Don't be afraid to be a contrarian 

A key strategy when trying to figure out how to bet on March Madness is to be a little different with your bracket. You aren't going to win your pool while picking the same champion or Final Four teams as the rest of your friends or coworkers.

Think about how many times Gonzaga has been the No. 1 overall seed and failed to cut down the nets despite being the betting favorite.

Three years ago, only 9.6% of ESPN brackets correctly predicted second-seeded Villanova would reach the Final Four. Only 1.1% of brackets were riding the eighth-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels to also go that far. Correctly picking one of those two teams likely improved your chances of winning a pool, and this information is available to the public as soon as brackets start getting submitted.

Here's a list of the most notable sites that carry March Madness bracket data:

  • ESPN
  • Yahoo!
  • CBS Sports

Before you finish your bracket, we suggest taking a look at the numbers and see where you can differentiate yourself from the masses, all while riding with some higher seeds in the end.

Got it? Test your skills with these free March Madness bracket challenges and download our free printable March Madness bracket to run your own pool.

🔮 March Madness bracket picks & tips

💰 March Madness betting odds pages

March Madness OddsMarch Madness PicksFinal Four OddsMarch Madness MVP Odds
March Madness Prop BetsMarch Madness Upset PicksMarch Madness Bracket GuideMarch Madness Bracket Predictions
March Madness Bracket Challenge

👑 Best March Madness betting sites

Ready to place your March Madness bets? Check out the best March Madness betting promos from our best March Madness betting sites, as determined by our expert team at Sportsbook Review.

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Each betting site featured on SBR has been meticulously researched and selected by our team of experts. If you sign up through our links, we may get a commission

Written By:
Esten McLaren
Esten is the Senior Publishing Editor for SportsbookReview.com. He has been in the sports betting industry since the legalization of mobile sports betting in New Jersey, and with SportsbookReview prior to the launch of sports betting in Ontario. Esten's previous stops include the USA TODAY network, including GolfWeek. He previously worked in the fantasy sports industry, with FNTSY Sports Network, theScore, and USA TODAY. Esten graduated from the College of Sports Media with a diploma in Radio and Television Sports Broadcasting after acquiring a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Guelph. He has appeared on FNTSY Sports Network, VSiN, and VSiN's Long Shots podcast, where he correctly called Will Zalatoris as the winner of the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship. Esten is a big proponent of the entertainment side of sports betting and loves to dip his toes into the novelty and alt-markets while chasing long shots with reduced wagers on golf outrights and futures markets. He's also been known to sprinkle some lunch money on touchdown-scorer parlays with two notable hits still funding his bankroll. Esten looks at sports betting much like golf and advises beginner bettors to compete against themselves rather than being concerned with what others may or may not be doing based on social media claims.