I don’t know much about this year’s teams playing in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, also known as March Madness, but I do know that I’m trying to win the bracket pool I’m in. It’s a bit embarrassing because I attended UCLA and went to so many college basketball games. I also follow professional basketball pretty obsessively (go Lakers), but I’ve been totally out of it when it comes to college basketball this year.
Nevertheless, I signed up for a March Madness bracket pool, and naturally, I don’t want to lose. I don’t think I’ll win first place, but there are some pretty decent prizes for the top 5, and that sounds attainable. I’m confident not because I’m a lucky guy, but because I’m going to use AI, more specifically ChatGPT, to create my bracket for me.
I don’t expect perfection — in fact, no one has ever had a perfect bracket in the history of the NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament. The odds of a perfect bracket are one in 9.2 quintillion. But I don’t need perfection. I just need to do better than my friends, coworkers, family members and everyone else in my pool.
So why not use ChatGPT?
How to ask ChatGPT to fill out your March Madness bracket
There are many ways to ask ChatGPT to fill out your March Madness bracket, so I’ll lay down a few scenarios, and you can go from there.
You can play it safe and stick to mostly favorites.
“Fill out my March Madness bracket with a statistically sound and low-risk approach, prioritizing favorites while including a few historically reasonable upsets.”
You can also go a little riskier in case you think that there might be more upsets than usual.
“Fill out my March Madness bracket with a mix of strong favorites, a few calculated upsets and at least one dark horse team making a deep run.”
You can also go really high risk, which might lead to high reward (but most likely not).
“Fill out my March Madness bracket with a bold, upset-heavy approach — prioritizing big Cinderella runs, major early round upsets and at least one surprise Final Four team.”
Now that’s bold!
Whatever prompt you use, you can tweak it as you see fit. You’ll probably be asked follow-up questions anyway, which you can answer to get a more tailored bracket. You can go with strong analytics-based picks or include hot teams with momentum. You can choose historically proven upset trends or go with gut-feeling wild card teams. These are all questions that ChatGPT may ask you in subsequent responses, so choose wisely.
I personally don’t want to go too risky with my NCAA bracket, so I’ll opt for a medium-risk prompt.
This is the NCAA bracket that ChatGPT chose for me
Using the prompt “Fill out a complete March Madness bracket for me, with a mix of strong favorites, a few calculated upsets and at least one dark horse team making a deep run. Make sure to include the First Four. Use this as a guide: https://www.ncaa.com/march-madness-live/bracket,” this is the bracket that ChatGPT (version ChatGPT 4o) generated for me:
Note: ChatGPT initially wasn’t giving me the correct teams, so I had to tell it to use the official NCAA website with the bracket on it as a guide. And I also had to mention to include the First Four teams, which it kept missing. Depending on what version of ChatGPT you’re using, you may have to play around with your prompt to get a correct answer.
“Here’s the complete 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket with the First Four, strong favorites, calculated upsets, and a dark horse making a deep run.
First Four
(16) Alabama State defeats (16) Saint Francis (PA)
(16) Mount St. Mary’s defeats (16) American
(11) North Carolina defeats (11) San Diego State
(11) Texas defeats (11) Xavier
—
South Region
First Round
(1) Auburn defeats (16) Alabama State
(8) Louisville defeats (9) Creighton
(5) Michigan defeats (12) UC San Diego
(4) Texas A&M defeats (13) Yale
(6) Ole Miss defeats (11) North Carolina
(3) Iowa State defeats (14) Lipscomb
(7) Marquette defeats (10) New Mexico
(2) Michigan State defeats (15) Bryant
Second Round
(1) Auburn defeats (8) Louisville
(5) Michigan defeats (4) Texas A&M
(3) Iowa State defeats (6) Ole Miss
(2) Michigan State defeats (7) Marquette
Sweet 16
(1) Auburn defeats (5) Michigan
(2) Michigan State defeats (3) Iowa State
Elite 8
(1) Auburn defeats (2) Michigan State
East Region
First Round
(1) Duke defeats (16) Mount St. Mary’s
(8) Mississippi State defeats (9) Baylor
(5) Oregon defeats (12) Liberty
(4) Arizona defeats (13) Akron
(6) BYU defeats (11) VCU
(3) Wisconsin defeats (14) Montana
(7) Saint Mary’s defeats (10) Vanderbilt
(2) Alabama defeats (15) Robert Morris
Second Round
(1) Duke defeats (8) Mississippi State
(4) Arizona defeats (5) Oregon
(3) Wisconsin defeats (6) BYU
(2) Alabama defeats (7) Saint Mary’s
Sweet 16
(1) Duke defeats (4) Arizona
(2) Alabama defeats (3) Wisconsin
Elite 8
(1) Duke defeats (2) Alabama
Midwest Region
First Round
(1) Houston defeats (16) SIU Edwardsville
(8) Gonzaga defeats (9) Georgia
(5) Clemson defeats (12) McNeese
(4) Purdue defeats (13) High Point
(6) Illinois defeats (11) Texas
(3) Kentucky defeats (14) Troy
(7) UCLA defeats (10) Utah State
(2) Tennessee defeats (15) Wofford
Second Round
(1) Houston defeats (8) Gonzaga
(4) Purdue defeats (5) Clemson
(3) Kentucky defeats (6) Illinois
(2) Tennessee defeats (7) UCLA
Sweet 16
(1) Houston defeats (4) Purdue
(2) Tennessee defeats (3) Kentucky
Elite 8
(1) Houston defeats (2) Tennessee
West Region
First Round
(1) Florida defeats (16) Norfolk State
(8) UConn defeats (9) Oklahoma
(12) Colorado State upsets (5) Memphis
(4) Maryland defeats (13) Grand Canyon
(11) Drake upsets (6) Missouri
(3) Texas Tech defeats (14) UNC Wilmington
(10) Arkansas upsets (7) Kansas
(2) Tennessee defeats (15) Wofford
Second Round
(1) Florida defeats (8) UConn
(12) Colorado State upsets (4) Maryland
(3) Texas Tech defeats (11) Drake
(10) Arkansas upsets (2) Tennessee
Sweet 16
(1) Florida defeats (12) Colorado State
(3) Texas Tech defeats (10) Arkansas
Elite 8
(1) Florida defeats (3) Texas Tech
Final Four
(1S) Auburn defeats (1W) Florida
(1E) Duke defeats (1MW) Houston
National Championship
(1E) Duke defeats (1S) Auburn (74-69)
These are some final thoughts that ChatGPT had for me.
Nelson Aguilar/CNETNow, I’ll have to wait until March 18 to see how I do. Well, how ChatGPT does.
Also, in case you care, which you definitely should, here’s the schedule for the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament:
- First Four: March 18-19
- First round: March 20-21
- Second round: March 22-23
- Sweet 16: March 27-28
- Elite Eight: March 29-30
- Final Four: April 5
- NCAA championship game: April 7