Importance Score: 35 / 100 🔵
NCAA Tournament Excitement Builds as AI-Driven Bracket Achieves High Accuracy
The college basketball season reaches its climax as March Madness intensifies, with the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments heading into the Final Four stage. Following the completion of the Elite Eight rounds in both brackets, an unconventional approach to tournament predictions has yielded impressive results. An AI-generated bracket, created with ChatGPT, has demonstrated remarkable precision, correctly forecasting a significant number of games and even outperforming traditional bracketology methods in early rounds. This innovative strategy leverages artificial intelligence to navigate the unpredictable landscape of March Madness bracket predictions.
AI Bracket Outperforms Expectations in NCAA Tournament
Remarkably, the AI-generated bracket is currently in a leading position in a bracket pool. This success is attributed to the bracket’s creation not through personal basketball expertise, but through artificial intelligence. In the initial round of the tournament, the AI accurately predicted 28 out of 32 games, followed by 14 correct picks out of 16 in the subsequent round. During the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight stages, ChatGPT maintained a perfect record, achieving flawless predictions of 8 for 8 and 4 for 4, respectively.
Despite a lack of deep familiarity with the competing teams in this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the objective remains to achieve a top ranking in the bracket pool. While a first-place finish is deemed ambitious, securing a spot within the top five, which offers attractive prizes, appears attainable. This optimism isn’t based on chance, but on the strategic utilization of an AI chatbot, specifically ChatGPT, to construct the tournament bracket.
Utilizing ChatGPT for March Madness Bracketology
There are various methods to employ ChatGPT for generating a March Madness bracket. Consider these different approaches, including the chosen method detailed below:
Conservative Bracket Strategy
“Generate a March Madness bracket employing a statistically sound and low-risk methodology, prioritizing favored teams while incorporating a limited number of historically probable upsets.”
Balanced Risk Bracket Strategy
“Construct a March Madness bracket featuring a combination of strong favorites, a selection of calculated upsets, and at least one underdog team projected to advance deep into the tournament.”
High-Risk, High-Reward Bracket Strategy
“Develop a March Madness bracket utilizing a bold, upset-focused approach—emphasizing significant Cinderella runs, major upsets in the early rounds, and at least one unexpected Final Four contender.”
These prompts can be adjusted according to your risk tolerance and preferred bracket strategy. Furthermore, ChatGPT can engage in follow-up questions to refine bracket choices, allowing for customization based on factors such as strong analytical selections, teams with current momentum, historical upset patterns, or intuition-based dark horse selections. The inclusion of a potential Cinderella team can also be specified within the prompt.
For this specific NCAA bracket, a medium-risk prompt was selected to balance favorites with potential upsets.
ChatGPT’s NCAA Men’s Tournament Bracket Predictions
The following bracket was generated 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,” utilizing ChatGPT (version ChatGPT 4o).
Note: Initial outputs from ChatGPT required refinement to ensure accurate team selections and inclusion of the First Four games. Prompt adjustments may be necessary depending on the ChatGPT version used.
Below are the comprehensive 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament bracket predictions, encompassing the First Four, favored teams, calculated upsets, and a dark horse projected to make a deep tournament run. Game outcomes reflect ChatGPT’s accuracy in the initial 52 contests played.
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)
LouisvilleCreighton ✅ - (5) Michigan defeats (4) Texas A&M ✅
- (3) Iowa State defeats (6) Ole Miss ❌
- (2) Michigan State defeats (7)
MarquetteNew Mexico ✅
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 StateBaylor ✅ - (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)
ClemsonMcNeese ✅ - (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)
In the tournament’s opening round, ChatGPT correctly predicted 28 out of 32 games and accurately identified significant upsets, including all three in the West region. The second round saw continued success, with ChatGPT forecasting 14 out of 16 games correctly and pinpointing 10th-seeded Arkansas as a surprise Cinderella team advancing to the Sweet 16. ChatGPT maintained a perfect prediction record in both the Sweet Sixteen (8 for 8) and Elite Eight (4 for 4) rounds.
ChatGPT Extends Bracketology to Women’s NCAA Tournament
While the NCAA women’s basketball tournament may garner less widespread attention than the men’s, bracket pools exist, presenting an opportunity to leverage ChatGPT for bracket creation. Employing a similar prompt to the men’s tournament bracket generation, the following women’s bracket predictions were obtained for illustrative purposes.
Prompt: “Fill out a complete women’s 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/brackets/basketball-women/d1/2025“
ChatGPT’s Predictions:
Note: Bracket details shortened for brevity, highlighting key predictions.
This bracket incorporates:
- Favorites: South Carolina, UCLA, USC, UConn, Texas
- Calculated Upsets: Louisville over Arizona, UConn over Texas
- Dark Horse: Louisville’s deep run
UCLA is projected to win the championship against USC in a West Coast final.