It’s that time of year again - March Madness! As always, we have a tournament pool group on the ESPN app and website.
Group name: SDMB Bracketeers
Password: cecil123
There is a limit of three brackets per participant. Brackets must be completed before the start of the first game on Thursday March 19.
Good luck!
Just checking the ESPN app this morning - the SDMB group for the men’s tournament does not show up under the women’s tournament tab. If anyone wants to do a women’s tournament pool they will have to create a new group.
I just submitted my bracket. I picked Duke to be upset in the Sweet 16 round because Screw Duke.
My comment from last year’s thread: 2025 College Basketball Tournament Pool - #5 by Ponch8
Same comment applies this year. Go Gators - Defending National Champions! 
I let my 6-year-old granddaughter enter a bracket in this pool. Her first pick was Long Island over Arizona. Bold move on her part.
Those are the ones who always win tournament pools - the people who have no clue what they’re doing.
If I win this one, that’s definitely me. I don’t follow college basketball, I haven’t watched a game in many years and I don’t have a clue.
It feels so weird to not have Oregon be in the tournament this year. Taking a longer-term view of things, it feels so weird for it to feel weird for Oregon not to be in the tournament. However, I just found out they are going to go ahead and have the tournament anyway, so I might as well do a bracket. I’ll try making a chalky one for a change.
I suspect Duke will win, but neither of my brackets have them winning because I refuse to cheer for them for any reason.
Well, I’m in. Didn’t pick any greater upsets than one #11 beating a #6 and a few #10s winning games against #7s.
That should ensure at least a few major upsets.
Bumping the thread since the brackets lock later this morning (the ESPN app says 11:15 - I assume that is time zone adjusted and I am in the Central Time zone). If you haven’t filled out a bracket, or it’s not complete, or you want to make some last minute adjustments, better hurry!
One request - if your SDMB name isn’t obvious from your bracket name, maybe drop a note in this thread letting us know which one is yours.
I am 80563733.
And proud of it.
Added a second bracket based on a random algorithm. Unless BYU and Miami of Ohio both make the Elite Eight, in that case I figured it out based on my extensive basketball knowledge and you should all sign up for my handicapping service.
Poor little Siena. Man, that was looking like THE major upset of the tournament. Apparently their starters played nearly the entire game? (I think one sub went in with just a few seconds left.) Those guys had to be exhausted by the end.
So, apparently my second bracket (which isn’t doing so great anyway) didn’t get added to the group, and I can’t tell if there is a way to add it now or not.
If I select My Brackets, it shows my two brackets. My first bracket has a Show/Hide toggle, and when I toggle Show it shows that bracket in the SDMB group.
My second bracket has Create Group and Join Group options. If I select Join Group then on the Groups page it shows the SDMB group under My Groups. If I select that group, it just shows me all the brackets currently in the group but I’m not seeing a way to add my bracket to the group.
Likewise, if I open my second bracket, it also shows the Create and Join buttons at the top, but selecting Join and then the SDMB group gets me the same result.
Am I missing something obvious?
I was just looking at the group this morning and realized that my third bracket didn’t get added to the group. Not sure why that didn’t happen, although it’s certainly something I should have checked after creating the bracket.
I don’t believe there’s a mechanism to add a bracket to a group after the tourney has started. I haven’t found one, anyway.
No big deal.
Yeah, like I said, that second bracket isn’t doing so great anyway. It’s at about 50% - I dashed it off at the last minute Thursday morning. It’s just annoying that the ESPN app makes it look like you can still add brackets to groups, but you really can’t.
Somehow I’m leading after round 1. Anyone want to just call it now?
I’m getting a screenshot quick before my inevitable dive to mediocrity.
As noted in the March mini-rants thread in the Pit, I fully expected Iowa, Iowa State, and Kansas to all get stomped in their respective games on Sunday. ISU easily beat Kentucky, Kansas came back from a 14 point deficit in the final minutes to take a one point lead in the final seconds, only to lose on a layup at the buzzer, and Iowa led defending national champs Florida for most of the game, and did not make the same mistake as Kansas and held on to their one point lead at the end.
So, at the end of the first weekend, we have Jahiegel in first place, Thing Fish in second, and Kimble and TroutMan tied for third. And only four brackets where the National Champ pick is out.
Not quite right. Kansas never took the lead late in the game, although they tied it with 13 seconds left before losing by two on that last-second layup.
Again, not quite right. Iowa did lead for the most of the game, but they blew a double-digit second-half lead and Florida actually led by three with just under two minutes to go. Iowa cut the lead to one, and Florida made one of two FTs with 8 seconds to play. Iowa then hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left to win by one.
Big 10 has six teams in the S16, while the SEC has four and the B12 has 3. Big East has two, and the ACC has one. Lowest seed still alive is Texas at #11.