How to fill out a men's March Madness 2026 bracket - ESPN

Thinking about playing ESPN's Men's Tournament Challenge game but don't know where to start?

We completely understand. Getting up to speed on college basketball for the NCAA tournament can be a difficult endeavor.

But don't worry, filling out your bracket doesn't have to be a daunting task. All you need is a few quick tips to get initiated into the time-honored tradition of «joining the madness» and have a chance to win the grand prize!

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Play Men's Tournament Challenge

1. Go to Men's Tournament Challenge.
2. Click «Create a Bracket.»
3. Fill out your bracket (you can use «Quick Bracket» to fill one out in seconds with Autofill, Random, Smart Bracket, Popular).

Other things you can do:

1. Click «Create Another Bracket» from the confetti screen (or on the dashboard tab, or on the bottom bar when viewing your saved bracket) and create up to 25 brackets.
2. (Optional) Join/Create a Group.
3. (Optional) Rename your bracket. On the «My Brackets» tab, click the gear icon to the right of your bracket name.

Chalk (all favorites): Take the higher seed (1, 2, etc.) in every matchup, automatically, and hope for no upsets!

Random: It's like flipping a coin for each and every game! We'll randomly select a winner for you in each game.

Smart Bracket (powered by ESPN Analytics): Using ESPN Analytics to break down the games, we'll generate a bracket for you.

Popular: The «people's bracket» becomes your own, as the winners are picked based on which teams the majority of Tournament Challenge users chose.

Finish My Bracket: Started your brackets but don't have the time to finish? Keep your current picks and let the computer fill in the rest. You can choose for the