March Madness bracket predictions: AI picks every NCAA Tournament game

Now that the 2026 men’s NCAA Tournament bracket has been announced, college basketball fans have begun filling out their brackets for each of the four regions, and the paths that would be required for the 68 teams to reach the Final Four.

So, who will win it all?

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Microsoft Copilot AI chatbot believes the 2026 NCAA Tournament will be a redemption story for the reigning national runner-up, Houston.

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USA TODAY Sports used the Microsoft Copilot AI chatbot to predict the result of every men’s game in this year’s NCAA Tournament bracket. The exercise looked a lot like how avid and casual college basketball fans fill out a traditional bracket for their bracket pool groups every year.

The Microsoft Copilot AI simulation selected the 2-seeded Cougars to be crowned the national champion on Monday, April 6 inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, which would be the first national title for Houston and make Kelvin Sampson the oldest Division I coach to win a national championship at 70 years old. Copilot had Houston beating Big 12 foe, 1-seed Arizona, in the national title game. The Wildcats defeated the Cougars in the Big 12 championship game this past weekend.

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The artificial intelligence software also predicted three upsets for the entire tournament, two coming in the first round with No. 12 seed High Point beating No. 5 Wisconsin and No. 9 seed Saint Louis beating No. 8 seed Georgia. The other was Houston getting revenge for last year’s national championship loss to Florida in the Elite Eight of the South Region. It has a Final Four that includes three No. 1 seeds (Duke and Michigan as the others) and one No. 2 seed in Houston.

There was one major flaw in the simulation, though. It mixed up the region names of the bracket, but it got the matchups through the Elite Eight correct. For the Final Four and national championship, we had to run a different simulation with the correct Final Four matchup pairings of regions from the actual NCAA Tournament bracket.

Here’s a complete look at how Microsoft Copilot’s AI chatbot…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/march-madness-bracket-predictions-ai-095123848.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-16 09:51:00

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