The road to the 2026 Final Four in Indianapolis begins Tuesday with First Four action in Dayton, Ohio. Between now and the final game of the college basketball season, 67 games will be played, and 67 teams will be eliminated, with one final team left standing on April 6.
Filling out a bracket is one of the most entertaining things you can do. Crafting the perfect bracket isn’t an exact science, but our CBS Sports experts are here to help you out with picks from the first round to the Final Four.
Something to consider when filling out your bracket is that since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, No. 1 seeds have accounted for 65 of the 160 Final Four spots, which is about 40.6% of the total participants. Last year, all four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four for the first time since 2008 and the second time ever. Florida was the last team standing after defeating Houston in the title game.
Share the madness with your friends, family and co-workers with your own March MadnessⓇ group. Start your bracket pool now and get everybody into the action!
Our experts’ brackets are below with title picks and explainers included on why we picked upsets, our Final Four teams, and of course, the most important part that might help you win your bracket pool, the team that wins the championship.
NCAA bracket 2026: Printable March Madness bracket for men’s NCAA Tournament
Matt Norlander
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Our experts’ brackets are below with title picks and explainers included.. …
2026 NCAA Tournament bracket predictions
Gary Parrish: Houston
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Houston was so close to winning the NCAA Tournament last season. I think the Cougars will finish the job next month. Are they the favorite to win this thing? No, obviously not. But if they win their first two games, they’ll have an obvious home-court advantage in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight because the South Region will be played in Houston. Simply put, I’ve always liked the idea of this team because they have a Hall of Fame-level coach in Kelvin Sampson, roster-continuity from last season’s team that played in the championship game of the NCAA Tournament courtesy of Milos Uzon, Joseph Tugler and Emmanuel Sharp, and multiple projected first-round NBA Draft picks in Kingston Flemings and Chris Cenac. That’s a great combination. So I’m riding with Houston.
Matt Norlander: Houston
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We’re in the final stage of what I think is the best season in a decade (at least) for men’s college basketball. Elite teams, a ridiculous freshman class and one major story after another have paved the path to this point. In the preseason, I picked Houston to beat Michigan in the national title game. And while that is still a possible final, I am making a slight tweak: Houston over Arizona. Tommy Lloyd’s Wildcats are the second-most popular title pick to Duke, and with good reason, but I am taking a 2-seed to cut the nets in historic and storytelling fashion. I think this Houston team is one of the best No. 2s in the tournament in recent memory. Combine the freshmen talent (Kingston Flemings being a lock top-10 pick) with vets like Emanuel Sharp, Milos Uzan and JoJo Tugler, and this team has the pieces to win six. It has the rugged defense. It obviously has the coaching. Kelvin Sampson’s words from last year rang out to me as I filled out my bracket: Don’t sleep on Houston.
David Cobb: Arizona
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Injuries to guards for No. 1 seeds Duke (Caleb Foster) and Michigan (L.J. Cason) loom large over this this bracket. Florida’s guards are healthy, but they are also streaky. Arizona is the most stable of the No. 1 seeds because it has the right combination of a great backcourt and tremendous size/physicality. The Wildcats are also impervious to going cold from the outside because their effectiveness is not predicated on making 3-pointers. Given their good health, recent performance and overall lack of weaknesses, Arizona is the safest bet to win the 2026 national championship.
Isaac Trotter: Arizona
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I’m doubling down on skilled size. Arizona is one of the biggest teams in college basketball with elite defenders at every level of the floor. Point guard Jaden Bradley is one of the toughest point-of-attack defenders. Ivan Kharchenkov is one of the best wing defenders in the sport. If you can’t protect the rim, you have no chance this season. Arizona has 7-foot-2 center Motiejus Krivas, who is a mountain of a man in the paint. Brayden Burries’ emergence as a bona fide killer scorer raises Arizona from a very good team into a special one. The five-star freshman is a cold-blooded assassin who is playing like a lottery pick.
Arizona has a deep eight-man rotation that is as healthy as you can be after 34 games. Plus, the draw matters. Every other team in Arizona’s West Region has red flags on offense or defense. The lack of 3s in Arizona’s portfolio is the lone concern, but it’s hard to drag Arizona into a halfcourt game, where that becomes magnified. The Wildcats are too big, too strong, too dominant on the boards and way too good.
Cameron Salerno: Duke
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Sixteen years ago, Jon Scheyer was on the floor at the Final Four in Indianapolis as a player at Duke when the program won a national title. Five years later, Scheyer was on the sidelines as an assistant coach under Mike Krzyzewski when Duke won its last national title, also in Indianapolis. You catching onto a theme here? This year’s title game will take place once again in Indy. Duke is not only the best team, but it also has the best player in the country for the second consecutive year (Cameron Boozer). This is the year the Blue Devils get back on top of the college basketball universe. Yes, the depth is a concern, but if Cameron’s twin brother, Cayden Boozer, plays as he did in the ACC title game, the Blue Devils will be cutting down the nets.
Chip Patterson: Arizona
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Get ready for the discussion about the absence of Cinderella because I’m not sure we will see any double-digit seeds make it through to the second weekend. This simply sets up the best teams to show the separation in college basketball and create some epic games in the tournament’s second and third weekend. Getting three 1-seeds into the Final Four is unusual, yes, but I don’t think we’re getting too far down the bracket to Indianapolis.
As for Arizona as the national champion pick, that’s taking stock of a team that’s dealt with some injuries and developed a rotation of talented depth that Tommy Lloyd can trust. Often times a title run can require not just top-end talent, but quality players on the bench that can provide offensive sparks or key minutes because of foul trouble. Arizona has that, and can win in lots of ways.
