Perfect Bracket for Small Pools: NCAA Tournament (2026)
The bracket is set. The field of 68 is locked in, and March Madness officially has its cast of characters for 2026. It's the most wonderful time of year, as brackets can finally be filled out. My favorite part every year is doing hours and hours of research just to have your co-worker’s nine-year-old be perfect after day one, while your champion lost in the first round. What a time to be alive.
There will be ample BettingPros coverage all week, and part of it will be creating the perfect bracket for small, medium, and large pools. Whether it's millions in a public contest, with your family, or at the office, I will have you covered on filling out your bracket of any tournament size.
This article covers tips for small tournament pools. These are your pools with friends, co-workers, or any group with 25 or fewer people. The basic strategy for these pools is to keep it simple. You will miss upsets and some Cinderella teams, but you should choose a high-floor bracket. There are so many ways to fill out a bracket that even if you go all chalk, it would be quite rare to have someone fill out the exact one as you.
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Perfect Bracket for Small Pools: NCAA Tournament (2026)
Pick Duke, Arizona, Florida, or Michigan to Win it All
I understand these are the four favorites, but as Will Warren pointed out, these are the best No. 1 seeds in the history of the tournament with an average adjusted efficiency margin (AdJEM) of 36.99. If you’re feeling deja vu, it’s because this was the same case last year of the best four No. 1 seeds we’d seen up until that point (average AdJEM of 36.12), and all four made the Final Four.
Duke may be limited without Caleb Foster, but Patrick Ngongba should be back, and if Cameron Boozer is healthy, this team has no ceiling. Arizona has been playing at an insane level since the calendar turned to March and already beat Florida and UConn in the non-con. It’s hard to see a team stopping them this tournament. Michigan and Florida have shown some holes in their game, but they are still leagues ahead of most of the field, and I’d be surprised by an early exit from either squad.
My money is clearly on one of these teams to win. I'd take one of the four over the field if you see that offered anywhere. Florida might be the weakest No. 1 seed, and they're still amazing. Don't be afraid to put all four in the Final Four. Everyone will say it can’t happen two straight years, right?
Do Some Research
This feels like a simple strategy, but there have truly never been more resources available to research college basketball matchups. Websites that do a spectacular job of showing a lot of free information are KenPom, Haslametrics, EvanMiya, and Bart Torvik.
They each highlight and rank different quirks of the sport, and include fun stats, analytics and trends that are valuable in their own way. Doing your own research allows you to take a different approach to filling out your bracket. If you Google 'best bracket' and follow that, odds are you will do what others will follow as well.
Pick Some Upsets But Keep it Simple
There are almost always upsets in the first round, especially between 11 vs. 6 and 12 vs. 5 matchups. Don't be afraid to pick a few upsets here and there, but in the long run, they're really only tie-breakers with the bigger points coming later in the tournament.
In the tournament, it's exciting to follow the Cinderella teams, but usually, there are only a few double-digit seeds that make it to the Sweet 16. Predicting those teams is quite difficult, so keep it simple. Chalky brackets may be boring, but in the end, the cream rises to the top, and chalk wins your bracket.
If you are inexperienced, I have a bracket you can copy and paste into your pool for your liking. It is pretty chalky, but keeps it simple and should give a solid floor for winning your bracket pool.
Ryan Coleman is a featured writer at BettingPros. Follow him on Twitter @ryancoleman_98. For more from Ryan, check out his archive.