Best tips, strategies for winning your 2025 March Madness Pools

One of the best sports weeks of the year is just around the corner because many sports and non-sports fans will examine how to win their family or office march Madness Bracket Pool. There is no better feeling than having rights about some of her closest friends or colleagues by ending after the 67-game NCAA tournament at the top. But what is the best method?

Simply select the winners. Easier said than done, of course. However, choosing the right winners is not the only thing you have to think about. “How many people are in your pool?” And “Do you have many Duke fans in your pool?” Are some things you have to think about when you want to be a bracket pool champion. I am here to give you a guide with my college basketball model that simulates the NCAA tournament 200,000 times to see how probably each team creates every round.

For the beginning, the size of your pool is the biggest factor. If you are in a large pool, say over 50 people, you have to tackle more to stand out from the rest of the pack. If you are in a smaller pool with 10 people or less, you would like to stick to the chalk. In other words, don't choose a lot of upsets.

Remember that the goal of these pools is not to bind with other people and share the profits. You want to be at the top of the ranking alone, so it is very important to make yourself different from your colleagues.

Each pool has its own unique rules. Some are more important than others, and they need to know if they look at their strategy.

Bracket strategy for large pools (over 50 people)

As I have already mentioned, you would like to have this type of pools where you want your disorders. Every year a top-four seeds seems before he has reached the sweet 16, or even a seed No. 1 or No. 2, which takes care of the elite. Here you can maximize your expected value. If a seed No. 1 or No. 2 falls in the second round, most participants will probably continue. If you let them lose in the sweet 16, they don't lose so many points.

It is of crucial importance. If you take advantage of, you would like to choose teams that are probably the public favorite to maximize the return if you fall victim to a surprise. At CBS Sports Bracket Games we have granted access to the selection percentages, and at the moment Duke is the most packaged champion (23 percent) in all brackets. So if you want to take a No. 1 seed to win everything, you will probably have to avoid the Blue Devils and look at Houston, which is only selected in 9 percent of the time.

It is not only important to check these metrics for the selection of teams to make a deep run, but it is also important for the selection of early round sets. For example, Michigan is selected in almost 82 percent of the time in CBS Sports Bracket Games. In the meantime, my model projects you to get out of your game in the first round with UC San Diego in only 54 percent of the cases. If you believe that I am the Wolverines low, the implicit probability of winning of BetMGM is only 57 percent.

First round to aim in large pools

CBS Sports Bracket Game percentage percentage in brackets.

• New Mexico (33%)
• VCU (31%)
• Colorado State (28%)
• UC San Diego (18%)
• Freedom (17%)
• Mcneese State (16%)
• Highlight (15%)
• Troy (6%)

Sweet 16 teams that aim in large pools,

• Texas A & M (37%)
• Illinois (29%)
• Gonzaga (11%)
• Saint Mary's (10%)
• VCU (10%)
• Uconn (8%)
• Louisville (8%)
• Colorado State (7%)
• Louisville (6%)

Final four teams that aim in large pools,

• Tennessee (25%)
• Texas Tech (7%)
• State iowa (6%)
• Gonzaga (3%)

Championship teams aimed in large pools

• Houston (9%)
• Tennessee (3%)
• Texas Tech (

Bracket strategy for small pools (less than 15 people)

This is the opposite of the larger pool strategy. You don't want to choose a lot of upsets and you want to be popular in the elite eight. Since the pool is so small, you don't need much deviation to win the whole thing. So stick to the more likely results and you will be successful.

First round that aims in small pools,

• New Mexico
• VCU
• Colorado State

Sweet 16 teams that aim in small pools,

• Texas A & M.
• Illinois
• Saint Mary's

Final four teams that aim in small pools,

• Tennessee
• Texas Tech
• State iowa

Championship teams aimed in small pools

Bracket strategy for medium pools (16-49 people)

This strategy is of course somewhere in the middle. How much risk you insert into your bracket probably depends on whether your pool is on the smaller side or on the larger side of this area. Simply put, you have to be more aggressive in a 40-person pool than a 20-person pool.

When choosing the first round that you have for a better chance, try to have a better chance of reaching Sweet 16. You don't have to cover the board with upsets, but you want to choose quality teams with cheap paths to maximize the return in the first round without getting too crazy.

First round that aims in medium pools,

• New Mexico
• VCU
• Colorado State
• UC San Diego
• Freedom

Sweet 16 teams aimed at medium pools

• Texas A & M.
• Illinois
• Gonzaga
• Saint Mary's
• VCU

(Photo by Joseph Tugler: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)