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The 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket is live, with the first round taking place on Thursday. The Auburn Tigers have enjoyed an impressive season with national player of the year candidate Johni Broome leading the way. Auburn was battle-tested in the SEC, arguably the deepest conference in the country during the 2024-25 college basketball season, and was rewarded with the No. 1 overall seed in the South Region on Selection Sunday 2025. How deep of a run can head coach Bruce Pearl and the Tigers make and what are the 2025 NCAA Tournament upsets you should include in your 2025 March Madness bracket?
The NCAA Tournament 2025 will culminate with the Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio on April 5 and the national champion will be crowned on April 7. Before making any 2025 March Madness bracket predictions, be sure to check out the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket picks from the proven computer model at SportsLine.
Their proven projection model has simulated every game in the tournament 10,000 times. It has absolutely crushed its March Madness picks recently, beating over 91 percent of all CBS Sports brackets in four of the past six tournaments. It was all over UConn’s championship run a year ago and nailed 13 teams in the Sweet 16. It also nailed Alabama’s Cinderella run to the Final Four as a 4-seed.
It knows how to spot an upset as well. The same model has produced brackets that have nailed 24 first-round upsets by double-digit seeds since its inception in 2016. There’s simply no reason to rely on luck when there’s proven technology to help you dominate your 2025 March Madness bracket picks.
Now, with the 2025 NCAA bracket revealed, the model is simulating the matchups and its results are in. You can only see it over at SportsLine.
Three 2025 March Madness bracket games to watch
One of the most intriguing 2025 March Madness matchups to watch: No. 5 Michigan vs. No. 12 UC San Diego in the South region. The Wolverines won the Big Ten Tournament on Sunday late in the day, which may have impacted their seeding to an extent. Dusty May was the first coach in Big Ten history to win the conference tournament in his first season at the helm. However, Michigan will have its work cut out against a 30-win UC San Diego team making its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance. The Tritons won the Big West thanks in larger part to wing Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, who averaged 19.5 points per game.
Another 2025 NCAA Tournament matchup to keep an eye on is No. 8 Louisville vs. No. 9 Creighton in the South Region. The Cardinals came up one win short of their first ACC Tournament championship ever, but Pat Kelsey’s first season in Louisville was still a resounding success with 27 wins. However, the Cardinals will square off with an experienced Creighton squad that has been to the Sweet 16 or better in three of the last four seasons. Ryan Kalkbrenner averaged 19.4 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game and is a four-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year.
Another 2025 March Madness game to watch out for: No. 4 seed Texas A&M will battle No. 13 seed Yale in the South Region. Yale won the Ivy League over Cornell on Sunday 90-84 and the Bulldogs won an NCAA Tournament game last year with an upset of Auburn. Fourth-year guard John Poulakida led the team with 19.0 points per game. Texas A&M also hung its hat on a recent win over Auburn, earning its first-ever win over a No. 1 team by beating the Tigers on March 4. Wade Taylor and Zhuric Phelps combine to give the Aggies one of the most dynamic backcourts in college basketball. You can see the model’s 2025 NCAA bracket picks here.
How to make 2025 NCAA bracket predictions
Who wins every tournament-defining matchup? And which teams will make surprising runs through the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket? With the model’s track record of calling bracket-busting upsets, you’ll want to see which stunners it’s calling this year before locking in any 2025 NCAA bracket picks.
So what’s the optimal NCAA Tournament 2025 bracket? And which NCAA Tournament Cinderella teams will shock college basketball? Visit SportsLine now to see which double-digit seeds you can back with confidence, all from the model that called UConn’s national title and nailed 13 Sweet 16 teams in 2024.
