The 2026 NCAA College Basketball Tournament has certainly lived up to its “March Madness” title.
March Madness consists of 67 games, starting with the round of 64, then the round of 32, the sweet 16, the elite eight, the final four, and finally, the championship. If somebody can accomplish a perfect bracket, they can win up to $1 billion. While it might seem easy to make a perfect bracket, the odds of your bracket being perfect if you have basic basketball knowledge are close to 1 in 120 billion. If you pick randomly, it raises your odds to 1 in 9.2 quintillion. In fact, you are more likely to win the lottery three times in a row than to pick a perfect March Madness bracket randomly.
This makes sense, as although each team is ranked in their region from 1–16, anything can happen. Upsets are the key to a wonderful March Madness. An upset is when a team of a lower seed defeats the higher seed, who is favored to win by default. Of course, if the high seeds all won, the tournament would be no fun. Close upsets such as this year’s TCU (9) beating Ohio State (8), VCU (11) beating UNC (6), and High Point (12) beating Wisconsin (5), just to name a few, make the tournament interesting and enjoyable to watch.
In the second round, better known as the Round of 32, two of the craziest upsets this season were Iowa (9) beating Florida (1), who were the champions last year, and Tennessee (6) beating UVA (3). What is most interesting about these two games is that they wiped out the remaining perfect brackets. Not a single person who had guessed the entire round of 64 correctly had both Iowa beating Florida nor Tennessee beating UVA, therefore causing the 2026 perfect March Madness bracket to become extinct.
The next round, nicknamed the “Sweet 16,” brought nothing but more “madness.” Iowa, the nine-seed, defeated the four-seeded Nebraska by six points and advanced to the elite eight, which is almost unheard of for a nine-seed. Tennessee, the six-seed, defeated Iowa State, the two- seed, and became a six-seed in the elite eight, which is more common, but still rare in March Madness.
The Elite Eight didn’t cool anything down either. Although most of the seeds are starting to line up with each other, there are still clear favorites to win and potential upsets. Arizona (1), who is my personal favorite to win the whole thing, defeated Purdue (2) and advanced to the final four. Michigan (1) defeated Tennessee (6), and Illinois (3) defeated Iowa (9). All of these were popular picks, and the majority of people had these games correct.
The last game, however, left most people’s brackets in shambles. Duke (1) was the favorite to win the championship for many people. Other than Arizona, they might have even been the most picked team to win. After establishing a 19-point lead, Duke was very confident against their opponent, UConn (2), but then eventually lost in an epic second-half comeback by UConn, followed by a legendary game-winning shot by freshman Brandon Mullins (#24), advancing the Huskies to the Final Four.
As of March 30, the Final Four has been established, and none of the Final Four games have been played. The games will both be played on April 4, starting with UConn (2) vs. Illinois (3), followed by Arizona (1) vs. Michigan (1), again followed by the championship on April 6. While there are once again clear favorites, anything can still happen.
