What is a March Madness bracket?

A bracket is the chart of the whole NCAA basketball tournament. It lists every game. You fill it in by picking the winner of each game, round by round, until one champion is left.

Why it is called March Madness

The tournament runs for three weeks in March.

Upsets happen almost every day.

Big teams fall early. Small schools win games nobody saw coming.

Fans call the chaos March Madness.

How the chart works

Teams are split into four regions.

Each region has 16 teams.

Every team gets a seed, a rank from 1 to 16.

Seed 1 is the strongest. Seed 16 is the weakest.

First games pair a high seed with a low seed.

Lose once and you go home.

Win and you move one step right on the chart.

How many games?

The main bracket has 63 games.

32 games in the first round. Then 16, then 8, then 4.

The last four teams are the Final Four.

Two more games leave one champion.

In 2027, the tournament grows to 76 teams.

An opening round trims the field to 64 first.

The main bracket still has 63 games.

Why people fill one out

Friends, families, and offices run pools.

Everyone fills in a bracket.

The best score wins the pool.

Most players know very little basketball.

That is normal. That is half the fun.

Read how to fill out a bracket when you are ready.