The 2025 NCAA Tournament is finally upon us. The first round of March Madness matchups will begin Thursday, which means you have mere hours to submit a bracket to that person in the office who organizes the pool every year and sends a dozen e-mails about it in the process.
We at The Sporting News have put together plenty of content to help prepare you to make relatively educated decisions when filling out your bracket — and to enjoy the tournament in general.
Here’s a roundup of our March Madness bracket predictions, regional previews, upset picks, tournament odds and more to help guide you through the NCAA Tournament.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Printable 2025 March Madness bracket
You can get a printable NCAA Tournament bracket here to fill out before and during tournament play. The Sporting News will continue to update the bracket as games are played.
Download Sporting News’ printable NCAA Tournament bracket (PDF) by clicking here.
SN’s MARCH MADNESS HQ: Live NCAA bracket | TV schedule | Women’s bracket
Who will win the NCAA Tournament in 2025?
Duke and Auburn opened as co-favorites with the best odds to win March Madness in 2025 at +350, according to the DraftKings sportsbook. Both carry potential red flags as the NCAA Tournament begins: The Tigers are the No. 1 overall seed, but lost three of their last four games, while the Blue Devils drew a tough region and star Cooper Flagg is injured.
No. 4 overall seed Florida (+380) isn’t far behind as national title favorites from the uber-deep SEC that sent an NCAA record 14 teams to this year’s field of 68. Tennessee (+1600, No. 5 overall) and Alabama (+1800, No. 6 overall) give the SEC four of the committee’s top six seeds.
Big 12 champion Houston rounds out the tournament’s No. 1 seeds at +600. Michigan State, St. John’s, Texas Tech and Wisconsin are slightly sneakier bets to win it all but still have the high-end talent (and legendary coaches) to erase the chalk.
How deep is this year’s field? Back-to-back champion UConn is an 8 seed and doesn’t even crack the top 20 in betting odds (+7500).
A team seeded 3 or lower has won the NCAA Tournament only six times since 1990, but it’s always possible — as we saw just a year ago with No. 11 N.C. State’s Final Four run. The lowest seed to win the NCAA Tournament was No. 8 Villanova in 1985.
March Madness odds 2025
| Team | Odds |
| Duke | +350 |
| Auburn | +350 |
| Florida | +380 |
| Houston | +600 |
| Tennessee | +1600 |
| Alabama | +1800 |
| Michigan State | +2500 |
| St. John’s | +2800 |
| Texas Tech | +3500 |
| Wisconsin | +4000 |
You can check out the opening odds for the entire field of 68 here.
March Madness bracket predictions 2025
It wouldn’t be enough to have just one expert tell you who they think will win it all, so we got several writers (and a robot!) to submit their NCAA Tournament predictions to help you deflect blame when your bracket busts in the first round. Here are our experts’ picks to reach the 2025 Final Four with links to their full bracket analysis.
Mike DeCourcy: Michigan State, Duke, Tennessee, Florida
Bill Bender: Michigan State, Duke, Tennessee, Florida
Vinnie Iyer: Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, St. John’s
Perplexity (A.I.): Michigan State, Alabama, Houston, Florida
More expert brackets: Check out Jay Bilas, Dick Vitale, Joe Lunardi and more bracketologist breakdowns in our bracket roundup.
The Sporting News’ experts are also breaking down individual game matchups to help make sense of the biggest toss-ups across your bracket:
SOUTH
EAST
MIDWEST
WEST
March Madness upset predictions
Upsets in the NCAA Tournament are never easy to predict. If they were, it wouldn’t be called March Madness. However, there are always at least a few under-seeded teams every year that pull off an upset or two in the first weekend and go on a Cinderella run. It’s just a matter of uncovering them.
The Sporting News’ Bill Bender broke down his sleeper teams most likely to pull off an upset in 2025:
No. 11 Drake (30-3)
Drake made this list last year, too, and lost a tight first-round game to Washington State before Darren DeVries took the West Virginia job. Now, Ben McCollum has crafted a roster that features several Division II transfers into what could be that ultimate Cinderella team. The Bulldogs beat Miami, Vanderbilt and Kansas State in non-conference play, too. Bennett Stirtz (19.1 ppg.) could emerge as one of those March Madness heroes we love, too. The Bulldogs lead the nation in scoring defense (58.4 ppg.), and they could make a run in the West Region against Missouri in the first round and the winner of Texas Tech and UNC-Wilmington. — Bill Bender
No. 12 McNeese (27-6)
The Cowboys are 57-10 the last two seasons under Will Wade. They were a hot bracket buster last year, too, and lost 86-65 to Gonzaga. Senior guards Javohn Garcia (12.9 ppg.) and Christian Shumate (10.9 ppg.) are key returning pieces from that team. McNeese lost 72-64 to Alabama and 66-63 to Mississippi State in non-conference play. The Cowboys will be a trendy upset pick again – maybe too trendy, heading into a tough matchup against Clemson. If the Cowboys can get past the Tigers, we would like their chances in the second round against the winner of High Point and Purdue. — Bill Bender
Read the rest of Sporting News’ sleeper picks here.
HISTORY OF UPSETS BY SEED:
16 vs. 1 | 15 vs. 2 | 14 vs. 3 | 13 vs. 4 | 12 vs. 5
NCAA bracket region guides
If simple picks aren’t your cup of tea, SN’s Mike DeCourcy has gone ahead and broken down all four of the bracket’s regions for some in-depth analysis of the best storylines, most likely upsets and more. We’ve also got stats and sleepers that could decide each region.
South Region: No. 1 overall seed Auburn might be losing steam at the wrong time. That spells danger in a region that includes Tom Izzo’s Michigan State, scrappy No. 3 Iowa State and two of the best point guards in the country. It also includes North Carolina, the tournament’s most controversial bid.
East Region: Duke finished strong despite the injury to star Cooper Flagg. That depth will make the Blue Devils a popular national title pick in many brackets, but the East has also been dubbed this year’s region of death with Alabama, Wisconsin and Arizona waiting in the wings.
Midwest Region: No. 1 Houston is getting overlooked in a region that also includes Tennessee and Kentucky from the loaded SEC. Farther down the board, No. 8 Gonzaga, No. 11 Xavier and No. 12 McNeese will be popular upset picks.
West Region: The Rick Pitino Show is going to steal the spotlight from this region, but the West is Florida’s to lose. It also includes two-time defending champion UConn searching for a three-peat.
NCAA Tournament bracket and betting tips
Play the odds: Know each seed’s history when picking your Final Four and championship teams.
Upset alerts: These sleepers and Cinderella candidates are most likely to bust your bracket in Round 1, according to Vegas.
No. 1 seeds at risk: Is Auburn, Duke, Florida or Houston the most likely to suffer an early upset?
Best Final Four bets: Sporting News breaks down Vegas odds as well as our own projection model to come up with the most likely team to advance to the Final Four in each region.
Average March Madness final point total hack: Use history as your guide to project that pesky bracket tiebreaker score.
Best, funniest names for your bracket: Having trouble coming up with a clever, punny name for your bracket? Let us help.
Perfect March Madness bracket odds: Here’s why it’s nearly impossible to pick all 63 games correctly.
Best March Madness bracket of all time: What is the longest an NCAA Tournament bracket has stayed perfect?
More March Madness news from Sporting News
Ranking the 2025 March Madness field 1-68: Move over, committee. These are the real rankings of the best and worst teams in the field of 68, from Duke to Saint Francis.
Sporting News’ 2024-25 college basketball All-Americans: SN’s Mike DeCourcy names the 15 best players from the 2024-25 college basketball season.
Sporting News Player of the Year: Johni Broome’s journey from a football-first ninth-grader in Plant City, Fla., to the Sporting News College Basketball Player of the Year at Auburn is a unique one.
Sporting News Coach of the Year: Kelvin Sampson has Houston in a sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament after the Cougars dominated the Big 12. He succeeds UConn’s Dan Hurley, joining such legends as John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski, John Thompson and Jim Calhoun in winning the award.
6 Cinderella players to know: Meet Nique Clifford, Tyler McGhie and other small-school stars poised to become household names this March.
37 best teams that didn’t win the NCAA Tournament: Sporting News picks teams from the past three decades that didn’t deliver a title. Which was the best?
Ranking the top 80 upsets in March Madness history: The NCAA Tournament has given us plenty of bracket-busting games over the years. They’ve never gotten old, and never will.