March Madness bracket set
Selection Sunday locked the 68‑team NCAA men’s bracket and crowned No. 1 seeds as Duke (32‑2), Arizona, Michigan and Florida, with the tournament now underway toward a Final Four in Indianapolis on April 4 and 6 NBC New York and summary bracket coverage Yahoo Sports. Experts are already pointing to potential upset paths as the field narrows toward the Sweet 16 NCAA.com.
First Four games are set for Tuesday, March 17 and Wednesday, March 18 in Dayton, Ohio, with UMBC vs. Howard and Texas vs. NC State on March 17 and Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh and Miami (OH) vs. SMU on March 18. ncaa.com Opening-round spotlights include No. 1 Duke vs. No. 16 Siena at 2:50 p.m. ET Thursday and No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 16 Long Island University at 1:35 p.m. ET Friday, while No. 2 Purdue draws No. 15 Queens and No. 5 Wisconsin meets No. 12 High Point in early First Round windows. ncaa.com CBS analyst Clark Kellogg publicly predicted High Point would upset Wisconsin during the Selection Sunday broadcast. usatoday.com Sporting News’ AI simulation also picked 12‑seed High Point over 5‑seed Wisconsin in West‑region first‑round projections, even as DraftKings opened Wisconsin roughly a 10–12 point favorite. sportingnews.com The Selection Committee identified NC State, Texas, SMU and Miami (Ohio) as the Last Four In and listed Oklahoma, Auburn, San Diego State and Indiana as the First Four Out. ncaa.com Committee chair Keith Gill emphasized on the Selection Sunday broadcast that Miami (OH) was not considered the single last team into the field despite playing in a First Four game. saturdaydownsouth.com Predictive models are already simulating brackets at scale — SportsLine ran 10,000 simulations and flagged multiple double‑digit seeds as plausible first‑week spoilers. cbssports.com Gemini‑powered analysis at Sporting News projects Arizona to emerge from the West and lists High Point among the likeliest 12‑over‑5 upset candidates in early rounds. sportingnews.com
