The wait is finally over: The men’s NCAA Tournament bracket is here, and you can start to fill it in with your upsets, Cinderella runs and eventual national champion.
This year, we have a top overall seed looking to make history, a dispute for the final No. 1 seed, bubble madness with the number of surprising automatic qualifiers and some enticing matchups.
Here’s what you need to know about this year’s bracket:
March Madness bracket 2024
You can view and download a printable version of this year’s NCAA Tournament bracket here.
March Madness bracket takeaways
Top overall seed UConn goes for repeat
As the No. 1 overall seed and the only regional No. 1 seed to win its conference tournament, the Huskies have a great case to be the first repeat champions since Florida in 2006 and 2007. However, they will have to deal with teams that are on a similar hot streak; No. 2 Iowa State, No. 3 Illinois and No. 4 Auburn all won their conference tournaments as well.
North Carolina gets the final No. 1 seed; Iowa State not in consideration
UConn, Houston and Purdue were all seen as No. 1 seed locks no matter their conference tournament results. North Carolina, who lost to North Carolina State in the ACC Tournament final, got the last No. 1 seed.
There was momentum for Iowa State to get that spot after winning the Big 12 Tournament, but the Cyclones actually came in as the No. 8 overall team, the lowest-ranked 2-seed. The chair of the selection committee, Dr. Charles McClelland, explained that Iowa State’s lower-ranked non-conference schedule was a deciding factor.
Bid stealers rule the day
It was a tough year to be a bubble team. With teams such as North Carolina State, Oregon and New Mexico winning their conference tournaments, the ACC, Pac-12 and Mountain West all got extra teams that weren’t expected to make the field. The first four teams out were Oklahoma, Seton Hall, Indiana State and Pittsburgh, and they all had a solid chance of making the NCAA Tournament before championship week. Now, they’re left on the outside looking in.
The Midwest is going to entice upset picks
The No. 1 seed in the region is Purdue, who is famously coming off the second-ever 1-16 upset last year. Saint Peter’s, who made the Elite Eight two years ago, is once again a 15-seed going up against a Tennessee team that crashed out of the SEC Tournament. Kansas is banged up and facing a tough Samford team in the 4-13 game, while 5-seed Gonzaga gets one of four teams that won at least 30 games this season in McNeese.
Long story short, people are going to pick some wild results in the Midwest. It might just match the expected madness.
Odds of picking a perfect bracket in March Madness
With 67 total games to be played during the tournament, it’s basically impossible to pick all of them correctly.
According to NCAA.com, the odds of such a feat break down like so:
- 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (if you just guess or flip a coin)
- 1 in 120.2 billion (if you know a little something about basketball)
So yeah, don’t expect to get every game correct. That doesn’t mean you can’t dream of that one in 9.2 quintillion outcome, though.
