Expert March Madness Brackets & Picks for the 2026 NCAA Tournament

• SBD’s resident experts have submitted their 2026 March Madness brackets
• Who is everyone picking to win the title? Biggest first-round upset?
• See below for SBD’s expert NCAA Tournament bracket picks

The 2026 NCAA Tournament is slated to begin on Thursday, March 19, which means that time is running out for you to submit your brackets to every office pool and bracket contest you can find.

SBD’s resident college basketball experts have submitted their brackets. The first section below summarizes each expert’s bracket (champion, Final Four, biggest upset, and first #1 seed to lose). The full brackets are under the table; click on a bracket to expand.

Jump to: Sascha Paruk’s bracket | Zach Reger’s bracket | Paul Constanzo’s bracket | Ian Jones’ bracket

SBD Expert March Madness Picks 2026

Odds in table from Kalshi (champion) and DraftKings (Final Four). Lock in SBD’s exclusive Kalshi referral code before the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

I expect another bracket or two to trickle in by the end of the day.

Sascha Paruk’s March Madness Bracket

Duke, Arizona, and Michigan have (by far) the best KenPom ratings, but Houston has more experience and – unlike last season – Kelvin Sampson’s 2026 group also has a legit top-five pick in Kingston Flemings. They should be much closer to the top-three favorites in the March Madness odds, not three times as long. They also reside in a South Region with the weakest #1 seed (Florida) and will have de facto home court advantage in the Elite Eight at the Toyota Center in Houston.

My biggest first-round upset is red-hot but high-variance St John’s to fall to Northern Iowa as 10.5-point chalk. UNI plays at the third-slowest pace in all of DI and excels at getting teams out of their rhythm. This game is likely to be played in the 120s and a slow pace always increases the chances of an upset.

Zach Reger’s Bracket

After coming up just short of a National Championship last year, I believe Houston can finally get it done in 2026. The Cougars are currently +1000 to be the NCAA Tournament winner.

Kelvin Sampson is a great coach with a lot of experience, Houston is still talented defensively, and now they have Kingston Flemings, who can take games over. They are battle-tested after playing in the Big 12. In fact, I have three teams from that conference in the Final Four. On their way to the championship, they will get their revenge against Florida in the Elite Eight.

It would not be a March Madness bracket without some first-round upsets, and I have two that I am eyeing. My favorite 12-seed is Akron (+240 ML) over Texas Tech. Akron matches up well with Texas Tech statistically, and the Red Raiders have lost their last three. The Zips put up a lot of points, and without JT Toppin, Texas Tech may struggle.

My biggest upset is 14-seed Wright State (+1300 ML) over 3-seed Virginia. The Cavaliers have a history of losing in the first round, and I like this Wright State team a lot. Virginia shoots a lot of threes and plays at a slow pace. That is a recipe for an upset if those shots are not going down. Wright State has enough on the offensive side to keep this game close and pull off the upset.

Paul Costanzo’s Bracket

We now live in a very chalky college basketball world, and this Duke team looks so professional in its approach to the game that I don’t see it getting caught off guard early as the No. 1 overall seed. Then, when the games get bigger, that professionalism and talent will be the difference. I love Houston’s experience, Purdue’s guard play and basically everything about Iowa State.

As much as I also love Arizona, I’m calling a Darius Acuff explosion in the Sweet 16 to give us our first 1-seed exit. In the early rounds, Akron and McNeese are dangerous 12 seeds, and I anticipate Santa Clara makes me sweat a bit in the Round of 32 by taking Iowa State to the brink.

Ian Jones’ Bracket

For nearly every matchup, I asked myself, “What’s the team’s ‘vibe’ right now? Are they rising or falling?” Our last three national champions got to where they were because they all got hot at the right times. You could argue that ’23 UConn doesn’t make the best case, but their average margin of victory in the tourney that year was twenty points, they were vibing harder than anyone else!

So what does that mean for 2026? Ignore anyone that fell in their conference tourneys and focus on the champs. That’s why I’ve got teams like UNC and Kentucky going home early, Houston knocking out Florida in the Elite 8, and Duke putting out the Cougars in the Final Four.

So, between Duke and Arizona, how does one choose who’s got the better vibe? Let’s looks at a common enemy: Texas Tech. The Red Raiders beat Duke by one on a neutral court early in the season, and Arizona in Tucson by three in OT just last month. Both were tight games, but the recency of the Wildcats’ losses plus the loss on home court to a shared opponent has me thinking the Blue Devils will win out under the bright lights of Lucas Oil Stadium.