NCAA Tournament

Start making your plans accordingly because the schedule for the opening games of the NCAA men's tournament is out.

Matt Norlander of CBS Sports passed along the times, dates and television schedule for the highly anticipated contests:

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The traditional schedule with First Four games on Tuesday and Wednesday of tournament week leading into the round of 64 on Thursday and Friday is a bit different. The COVID-19 pandemic forced adjustments with the entire tournament taking place in the state of Indiana, and the schedule is also different.

That means the entire First Four is Thursday with something of a quadruple-header.

It's not that often fans are treated to a showdown between two of the best programs in college basketball history in the First Four, but that is the case this year with Michigan State and UCLA just sneaking in as two of the last at-large bids.

Nobody has more national championships than UCLA's 11, and Michigan State is tied for seventh in history with 10 Final Four trips. That is quite the headliner for the opening night of tournament basketball and could very well come down to the final minutes.

It was something of a surprise to see the Spartans just get into the field with wins over two of the No. 1 seeds in Illinois and Michigan, as well as No. 2 seed Ohio State.

They are a dangerous group with a legendary coach in Tom Izzo who could threaten some of the top teams in the bracket if they get past the Bruins.

UCLA struggled down the stretch and enters the Big Dance with four straight losses, but it also started 12-2 with losses to Ohio State and San Diego State as the only blemishes in that span. The Bruins are capable of getting hot at the right time and making a deep run, but a clash with Michigan State is a daunting opening task.

And an excellent appetizer for the round of 64 on Friday and Saturday.

The 2021 men's NCAA tournament bracket has officially been released. Now it's time to get it printed out and start breaking down how you're going to win your bracket pool.

March Madness is an unparalleled event every year. Much of that has to do with the unforgettable performances, the buzzer-beaters and major upsets. But the pursuit of bragging rights and cash prizes by filling out the best bracket is certainly part of the draw. 

Earning those bragging rights takes a good mix of research, analysis, trusting your gut and a good bit of luck. They don't call it "madness" for its predictability. 

Still, there are a few things you can keep in mind that will make your bracket a little less prone to busting. Based on historical trends, you can identify some teams that might be able to pull an early upset or make a surprise run to the Sweet 16. 

First, here's a look at the complete bracket. A downloadable version can be found here. 

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Everyone loves nailing their upset picks: There's just something rewarding about calling that traditional 12-5 upset in the first round, but the real key to success is picking the correct winners in the later stages of the tournament. 

Wayne Staats of NCAA.com broke down the last five years of their bracket challenge game-winners and found that success in picking the first- and even second-round games doesn't mean nearly as much as nailing the Final Four. 

Staats noted that every winner in the contest since 2015 had at least six of the Elite Eight teams correct and 19 of the last 20 Final Four teams. Loyola-Chicago's unexpected run in 2018 was the only one the eventual winner missed. 

So when breaking down your bracket, it isn't worth sweating out that No. 8 vs. No. 9 matchup you've been fretting over. Instead, it's more important to figure out who is going to advance and come up big in those final rounds. 

When it comes to narrowing down your national champion pick, there are a few key factors that can help cut through the clutter of information. Joe Boozell broke down the last 12 national champions for NCAA.com and found a few commonalities. 

Among those similarities are a top-seven offense and a top-20 defense as rated by KenPom.com's efficiency metrics.

Just using those two thresholds alone this year, you could whittle your championship contenders down to Gonzaga, Michigan and Illinois. Houston barely misses the cut at eighth in offensive efficiency while their defense comes in at 16.

Other common threads Boozell mentions are senior leadership, excellent point guard play and at least one crunch-time scorer. 

But even if you pick the winner, upsets are still a big part of nailing the bracket. While there's some element of simply trusting your gut, there's some data to consider here, too. 

Using a two-seed difference between the winner and loser as a definition, Andy Wittry of NCAA.com came up with an average of 12.2 upsets throughout the tournament. He also noted there have only been three tournaments in the last 35 years in which there were fewer than nine upsets. 

That leaves plenty of wiggle room to shy away from the chalk result but sets up some guardrails for going overboard before you start penciling UC-Santa Barbara into the championship game. 

When it comes to where those upsets will happen, the No. 12 seed over a No. 5 seed is always a popular pick, but 11th-seeded and 10th-seeded teams pull off upsets more often, per Wittry. 

So while 12-seed Winthrop is worth a long look when forecasting some unpredictability in the tournament, No. 11 Syracuse upsetting No. 6 San Diego State is more likely. 

It's important to spread out those upset picks beyond the first round, too. A seventh or 10th seed beats a second seed on average 1.2 times per year, according to Wittry. 

This year, that means at least one of Alabama, Ohio State, Iowa and Houston could be facing an early exit if those trends hold true. 

Don't get too giddy about any of those eighth or ninth seeds, though. They have only beaten a No. 1 seed 19 times in the past 35 seasons, so they are far from guaranteed to happen. 

Then again, No. 1 seed Baylor is coming off a convincing loss to Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Championship Game. They will have to face the winner of North Carolina and Wisconsin in Round 2, and both have a history of doing well in this tournament. 

Ultimately, predicting the madness is an inexact science. Even the data lies sometimes, and it all comes down to calling your shot and watching it all unfold. 

Just take a second to look at the bracket in all its glory.

As a collective of fans, we missed out on one of the most beautiful things in all of sports last year when there were no brackets after the 2020 NCAA men's and women's tournaments were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While that meant no office pools, no poring over advanced stats to find the perfect upset pick and no weekends of nonstop basketball, the bracket has made its triumphant return.

The 2021 NCAA men's field is set on this Selection Sunday, so fire up those printers and get ready to fill in a bracket that is two years in the making. With that in mind, here is a printable bracket and a few tips to follow before filling it out.

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Printable Bracket

2021 NCAA Men's Tournament Bracket

Bracket Tips

Don't Go All Chalk

First of all, going all chalk is boring.

Unless you are an actual fan of one of the No. 1 seeds or attended school there, rooting for the powerhouses goes against the very nature of March Madness itself. The tournament is known for said madness because of the upsets and how entertaining they can be to even the most casual fans.

There is also logical reasoning behind the decision not to go full chalk.

All four No. 1 seeds have advanced to the Final Four together just once, which happened in 2008. Three No. 1 seeds have made it to the same Final Four just five times throughout the tournament's history.

The suggestion here is to back Gonzaga, which is an absolute powerhouse that has not lost a single game and proved itself against Kansas, Iowa, West Virginia and Virginia outside of WCC play.

However, pick teams outside of just the other No. 1 seeds to join the Bulldogs in the Final Four.

Pick a No. 7 Seed to Back

This is about the history of the No. 2 seeds more than the No. 7 seeds.

As Joe Osborne of OddsShark pointed out, all four No. 2 seeds have advanced to the Sweet 16 just twice since 1997. The second round almost always spells the end of the road for at least one No. 2 seed, and this year's tournament will likely follow suit.

It may seem like there is a wide gap between the Nos. 2 and 7 seeds when looking at the bracket, but, in theory, these are the Nos. 5-8 teams and Nos. 25-28 teams in the country when dividing the entire group of teams into four regions.

Many fans wouldn't even think twice about the No. 25 team in the Top 25 beating the No. 8 team on a neutral floor during a midweek game in February, so don't be stunned when a No. 7 seed defeats a No. 2 seed in the second round.

Recent history suggests at least one of those No. 2 seeds will not see the Sweet 16.

Pick a Double-Digit Seed to Reach the Sweet 16

Like the suggestion to avoid going all chalk, this one has logical and emotional reasoning behind it.

From the emotional side, it is easy to form something of an attachment to a first-round underdog pick that actually comes through when filling out a bracket. Such a pick means bragging rights and an early lead in bracket pools.

However, that attachment loses some of its sentimentality if you just have to turn around and cheer against said underdog playing a powerhouse from a major conference in the second round to preserve your bracket. Picking a double-digit seed to advance to at least the Sweet 16 keeps the magic going at least one round longer with the new underdog you backed.

Recent history also suggests the Sweet 16 is more of a floor than a ceiling for at least one double-digit seed.

Oregon advanced to the Sweet 16 as a No. 12 seed in 2019, Loyola advanced to the Final Four as a No. 11 seed in 2018, Syracuse advanced to the Sweet 16 as a No. 11 seed in 2018, Xavier advanced to the Elite Eight as a No. 11 seed in 2017 and Syracuse advanced to the Final Four as a No. 10 seed in 2016.

Find a double-digit seed and get ready to fall in love with an underdog.