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For some college basketball fans, filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket can be a gradual process. Initial picks are made on Selection Sunday, and then they’re adjusted as the week progresses, with deliberation about certain teams and games occurring right up until first-round action officially begins on Thursday, March 19.
This might be what’s happening to artificial intelligence as well. After USA TODAY Sports initially asked Microsoft Copilot’s AI chatbot to run a simulation of every game in the Men’s NCAA Tournament bracket on Selection Sunday, another attempt three days later produced the same champion, a mostly chalk Final Four and several additional upsets.
Houston remains Microsoft Copilot’s pick to emerge as the national champion in 2026 and it projects as the only non-No. 1 seed to make the Final Four, according to this simulation. However, AI did predict six double-digit seeds to pull off upsets and advance past the first round this year. That’s five more than what it projected on Selection Sunday.
Here’s a complete look at how Microsoft Copilot’s AI chatbot predicted every game in the 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament bracket:
USA TODAY Sports asked Microsoft Copilot’s AI chatbot to pick the winner of every game in the 2026 NCAA Tournament bracket based on team’s strengths and weaknesses, several advanced metric models, the latest upset projections and expert analysis on each matchup.
East region
South region
Midwest region
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East region
South region
Midwest region
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East region
South region
Midwest region
West region