Time-Tested NCAA Bracket Formula:
Only These (7) Teams Can Win 2025 Title
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
Below is a simple, time-tested, four-step process to maximize your chance of winning an NCAA Tournament bracket contest and/or office pool.
It blends art and science. It leaves plenty of room, within its boundaries, for you to exercise your unique prognostication freedom. While far from perfect, it has a proven track record.
Since the turn of the century, 23 of the 24 NCAA champions (exception: 2014 Connecticut) — that’s almost 96 percent! — have come from the relatively small pool of teams identified each year with this formula.
Three quick requests: (1) Don’t bet the kids’ college tuition fund on this stuff; (2) if you win, take all the credit yourself; and (3) if you don’t win, please remember that this advice is free, and be kind about others’ never-ending imperfections (in this case, mine). This is supposed to be fun!
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Step One: Select a top-four seed to win it all.
The ground rules for an NCAA Tournament pool or bracket contest can vary greatly, but in the vast majority of them, it’s almost impossible to win unless you correctly pick the national champion.
So, why a top-four seed? Well, since the NCAA Tournament organizers started seeding the field, in 1979, top-four seeds have won 41 of the 45 events. That’s more than 91 percent of the time.
Here’s the full historical (1979-2024) breakdown: #1 seeds (27 times), #2 seeds (seven), #3 seeds (five) and #4 seeds (two). The other four NCAA titles were won by two #6 seeds (1983 NC State and 1988 Kansas), a #7 seed (2014 Connecticut) and a #8 seed (1985 Villanova).
Put the odds in your favor. Your “Cinderella story” should involve either enjoying a Disney movie with the kids/grandkids or doing a bad Bill Murray/Carl Spackler impression from the movie Caddyshack. It must not derail your shot at March Madness riches and/or eternal bragging rights.
Step One reduces your 2024 national champion choices to 16 teams: Auburn, Duke, Houston, Florida, St. John’s, Tennessee, Alabama, Michigan State, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Texas Tech, Maryland, Purdue, Arizona and Texas A&M.
Step Two: Embrace your hate, and address your demons.
If you would experience excruciating pain, or even significant discomfort, watching one or more of the 16 teams listed above (or individual coaches/players on those teams) win the NCAA title this year, eliminate it/them from consideration for your projected national champion.
This is supposed to be fun. Since the pleasure of winning your bracket/pool likely would be outweighed by the utter misery of watching your most hated team cut down the nets in San Antonio, don’t go down that road, no matter what your brain or the analytics may tell you.
“Demons” may simply be a deep-seated personal problem (mine), but they are worth mentioning, just in case. If there are one or two schools that have absolutely destroyed your otherwise brilliant NCAA brackets of the past with mind-numbing, soul-sucking, dagger-through-the-heart frequency — I’m looking at you, Michigan State!! — it is perfectly understandable if you discard them as NCAA title contenders, as well.
Step Three: Require offense/defense balance.
It’s OK if you’re not into analytics, metrics or even basic statistics.
If you want to win your NCAA Tournament bracket/pool, though, you must embrace history. In this case, history tells us that it’s almost impossible to win the NCAA title if you were a wildly imbalanced team (offense vs. defense) during the regular season.
If you see a team that’s top-10 in both the offensive and defensive efficiency rankings (e.g., at KenPom.com), give that team very strong consideration as your national champion.
In the past 22 tournaments, these 12 teams all won the NCAA title with that sort of high-level balance: 2002 Maryland, 2004 UConn, 2005 UNC, 2006 Florida, 2008 Kansas, 2010 Duke, 2012 Kentucky, 2013 Louisville, 2016 Villanova, 2019 Virginia, 2023 UConn and 2024 UConn. Several other champions (e.g., 2015 Duke, 2017 UNC, 2018 Villanova) came very, very close to those lofty numbers.
In this year’s field, only Duke, Florida and Houston currently fit that top-10/top-10 description, although Auburn, Iowa State and Tennessee are close enough to get there with strong March Madness performances.
Among the 16 “contenders” listed above, Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Purdue, Texas Tech and Wisconsin are stellar offensive teams but relatively mediocre (compared to the NCAA field) on defense. St. John’s and Texas A&M fit the opposite description, dominant defensive squads with relatively modest offensive firepower.
That leaves only eight possible choices for your all-important national champion — Auburn, Duke, Houston, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan State, Iowa State and Maryland — minus anyone you may have eliminated in an emotionally exhausting Step Two.
Unfortunately, Iowa State just recently learned that starting point guard Keshon Gilbert, a two-time All-Big 12 performer and the Cyclones’ #2 scorer and top assist man this season, won’t be able to play in the NCAA Tournament because of a groin injury.
That leaves just seven options: Auburn, Duke, Houston, Florida, Tennessee, Michigan State (although not in my bracket because of the personalized “Demons” factor) and Maryland.
Step Four: Follow the NBA talent.
How many teams have won the NCAA title in the last 70-plus years without one or more players who later became top-30 (nowadays, that’s means first-round) NBA draft picks?
Answer: zero. Seriously.
Indeed, almost all NCAA champions have more than one, as illustrated in great detail via our encyclopedic six-part series on this topic. It’s not at all unusual to see examples of title teams that ended up with three, four or even more (1996 Kentucky and 2004 Connecticut had six each!) top-30 NBA picks. I did the research myself, and I’ve written about it often. Please let the fruits of my decades-long labor benefit your 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket.
The tricky part of this step, of course, is that we don’t know with certainty which current college players will end up being first-round NBA picks. This is where some educated speculation comes in handy.
Among our seven “finalists,” for example, Tennessee likely doesn’t have a single first-round pick in its rotation. Senior guards Zakai Zeigler (first team) and Chaz Lanier (second team), who both earned All-SEC honors for the Volunteers this season, are projected as either second-round selections or undrafted free agents this summer.
Elsewhere, Duke (Cooper Flagg, Khaman Maluach, Kon Knueppel and likely others) has multiple players who project as near-certain first-round NBA picks. Auburn (Johni Broome), Florida (Walter Clayton Jr. or Alex Condon), Houston (Joseph Tugler), Maryland (Derik Queen) and Michigan State (Jase Richardson) might have at least one each, too. Flagg, Maluach, Queen and Richardson are viewed as lottery picks.
A side note, just in case you opt to ignore — as is your right! — other suggested steps in this process: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Baylor, BYU, Colorado State, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Marquette, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech also have at least one probable/possible first-round NBA pick on their rosters.
Once you pick your national champion from among the group of recommended teams (this is where that personal discretion and those unique prognostication skills come into play), work backward in your bracket. The teams in this elite category also qualify as highly probable Sweet 16 picks and strong Final Four candidates.
Beyond these rules, remember that (generally speaking) regular-season conference champions have a better track record than tournament champions in the NCAA Tournament. Among our seven favorites, three of the #1 seeds — Auburn (SEC), Duke (ACC) and Houston (Big 12) — and #2 seed Michigan State (Big Ten) finished first in their respective league standings.
In closing, one time-tested approach is to select a Final Four with your two most confident #1 seeds (e.g., Duke and Houston in the East and Midwest, respectively), your favorite #2/3 seed (e.g., St. John’s or Texas Tech in the West) and your favorite lower seed (e.g., #8 Louisville or #11 UNC in the South). Reminder: Only once have all four #1 seeds advanced to the national semifinals, although it feels like a realistic possibility this year.
Finally, remember to expect a messy bracket, regardless of the brilliance of your approach.
Good luck, and Happy March Madness!
