The wait is almost over. On Selection Sunday, the bracket drops and the madness officially begins.
Get ahead of the curve with our ultimate 2026 tournament hub, featuring a ready-to-print bracket for your wall and a mobile-friendly digital version to track every buzzer-beater from the First Four to the National Championship Game.
The 2026 March Madness bracket
Come back soon to see our live interactive bracket for 2026. You can follow it along all the way through to the end of the tournament!
Follow along with each round right up to the National Championship to keep track of Covers' 2026 College Basketball Men's Tournament Bracket.
You can also download and print our official bracket by visiting our printable March Madness bracket page. Make sure you fill out your bracket and enter free bracket challenges and contests before the tournament starts for a chance at huge prizes for March Madness.
Enjoying Covers content? Add us as a preferred source on your Google account
2026 bracket details
- The official bracket will be released on March 15, 2026.
- The Final Four for 2026 is set to be played at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN.
- The First Four play-in games are scheduled for March 17 and 18, 2026.
- Bracket submissions are due before the first game of Round 1 on Thursday, March 19, 2026. This usually occurs around Noon ET.
- The first weekend (Rounds 1 and 2) runs from Thursday, March 19 - Sunday, March 22, 2026.
- The second weekend (Sweet 16 and Elite Eight) runs from Thursday, March 28 - Sunday, March 29.
- The Final Four and national championship game will be held on April 4 and April 6, respectively.
The perfect March Madness bracket
A question often asked of us is whether there has ever been a perfect March Madness bracket. The answer is simple: No. And there likely never will be.
That's because the odds of successfully predicting a perfect March Madness bracket are 1 in 120.2 billion — assuming you know a little about college basketball! If you're flipping a coin? Those odds become 1 in 9.2 quintillion, per NCAA.com.
No wonder Warren Buffett offered $1 billion to anyone who could fill out a perfect bracket.
Covers March Madness bracket guides
Once the bracket is set, it's time to fill out some brackets of your own. Use our free printable bracket to plot a course through the tournament.
Get our prediction
We'll research and release the official Covers March Madness bracket predictions. Use them to your advantage.
Enter contests
Now that your bracket is filled out enter as many free bracket contests as possible. If that's not your thing, there are plenty of other March Madness pool and game ideas to choose from.
March Madness Bracket FAQs
March Madness brackets come out immediately following the Selection Sunday show, which in 2026 is on March 15 at 8:00 p.m. ET..
March Madness brackets are due just before tip-off of the first game of the first round (the Round of 64).
The teams for the March Madness bracket will be announced during the Selection Sunday show, which in 2026 is on March 15.
