Selection Sunday is just two weeks away, so it’s time do your homework before making your 2026 NCAA Tournament picks. Although last year’s brackets lacked many big upsets, college basketball parity means this year could be different. Until 2018, no 16 seed had ever defeated a No. 1. Now, it has happened twice. Could it happen again in the 2026 NCAA Tournament bracket? On the men’s side, a number of powerhouses all have a clear shot to make noise. Duke, Arizona, Michigan and Iowa State are all in position to claim No. 1 seeds in the 2026 March Madness bracket.
Recent national champions like UConn and Florida are right behind. On the women’s side, UConn entered weekend play unbeaten with UCLA and South Carolina among their top competitors. With the action so close, now is the time to set up your 2026 Men’s March Madness pools and 2026 Women’s March Madness pools.
If you’re looking for a NCAA Tournament bracket game home, CBS Sports is the perfect place. You can play Bracket Games free on the CBS Sports App in pools with your friends and join free Men’s and Women’s Bracket Challenges to potentially win big prizes.* Get started right here.
How to create a 2026 NCAA Tournament pool with friends and family
Run your own free 2026 March Madness pool on CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports app and invite all of your friends, family, and co-workers to play against you during this year’s tournament.
To start a bracket pool for Men’s March Madness, go to the Create Men’s Bracket Pool page, name your group and choose if you want a locked pool where you control the invites or an open pool that everybody can share. After that, just confirm your rules and then you can copy and share your personal pool link with friends or have CBS Sports send them emails.
For a Women’s March Madness pool, you can follow the exact same process but start at the Create Women’s Bracket Pool page in order to start your pool for the Women’s NCAA Tournament.
How to play 2026 March Madness Brackets for prizes
There are CBS Sports NCAA Bracket Challenges for the men’s and women’s tournaments and a trip to each 2027 Final Four on the line in both challenges. It’s easy to compete for those epic trips.
For the Men’s Challenge, simply click this link, click the
How to run your 2026 March Madness pool: Play for prizes and create your NCAA Tournament game
