Pac-12
Rebuilt around holdovers Oregon State and Washington State. Gonzaga arrived from the WCC, Texas State from the Sun Belt, with Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State from the Mountain West.
Draw random college basketball programs from ten Division I conferences, or seed a 4, 8, or 16-team bracket in the pairing order the NCAA uses inside each region. Seed numbers decide every game, so a 12 seed knocks out a 5 seed about three times in ten.
The bracket above loads with the page and stays the same for every visitor. Saint Mary's drew the 1 seed and Wichita State the 8. Gonzaga, the 4 seed, lost its opener to 5 seed Arkansas. UC Davis, a 6 seed in its first Mountain West season, beat 3 seed Dayton. Arkansas then took out Saint Mary's in the semifinals, and 2 seed Purdue beat Arkansas in the final.
Three upsets in seven games sits above the average. On an 8-team field, the seed rule expects about two. Press Build bracket a few times and the count swings between zero and four.
random_int, a cryptographically secure source.The rule for each game:
chance seed A beats seed B = B / (A + B)
1 vs 16 16 / 17 = 94.1%
5 vs 12 12 / 17 = 70.6%
8 vs 9 9 / 17 = 52.9%
1 vs 2 2 / 3 = 66.7%Later rounds use the same rule. A 1 seed facing a 4 seed in the semifinals wins 80% of the time, four chances in five.
The seed rule is a simple formula, not a model of real teams. The table sets its first-round odds beside the men's NCAA tournament since the field grew to 64 teams in 1985, through the 2025 tournament.
| First-round game | Higher seed wins here | Higher seed wins in the real tournament |
|---|---|---|
| 1 vs 16 | 94.1% | 158 of 160 games, 98.8% |
| 2 vs 15 | 88.2% | 149 of 160 games, 93.1% |
| 3 vs 14 | 82.4% | about 85% |
| 4 vs 13 | 76.5% | about 79% |
| 5 vs 12 | 70.6% | about 65% |
| 6 vs 11 | 64.7% | about 61% |
| 7 vs 10 | 58.8% | about 61% |
| 8 vs 9 | 52.9% | about 49%, the 9 seed holds a slim lead |
Two gaps stand out. The rule sells the top two seeds short. A 16 seed wins here about once in 17 tries, while the real tournament has seen two in 160 games: UMBC over Virginia in 2018 and Fairleigh Dickinson over Purdue in 2023. The rule also makes 12 seeds a touch weaker than history, where the 5 vs 12 game has a reputation for a reason.
Our take: use the generator for party brackets, mock drafts, and quick tiebreaks. For a paid bracket pool, fill your picks by hand from real rankings.
The pool follows conference membership for the 2026-27 season. Realignment moved a long list of schools on July 1, 2026, so team lists built before then put Gonzaga in the wrong league. Four conferences changed the most:
Rebuilt around holdovers Oregon State and Washington State. Gonzaga arrived from the WCC, Texas State from the Sun Belt, with Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State from the Mountain West.
Lost five schools to the Pac-12. Hawaii and UC Davis came over from the Big West, UTEP from Conference USA, alongside Grand Canyon from the WAC.
Gonzaga, Oregon State, and Washington State left. Denver joined from the Summit League, a year after Seattle U arrived from the WAC.
The ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, Big East, Atlantic 10, and American kept their 2025-26 lineups. Big Ten draws include UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington, a detail older generators still miss.
The High-major preset ticks the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Big East. Mid-major ticks the other five. The split is a common shorthand, not an NCAA rule. Gonzaga lands in the mid-major group here despite reaching the national title game in 2017 and 2021.
Yes. Each program in the ticked conferences has the same chance. Larger conferences fill more slots, so on an all-conference draw the Big Ten and ACC show up more often than the Pac-12.
Each game follows the seed rule, so a 16 seed beats a 1 seed about once in 17 games. Winning a whole 16-team region takes four straight wins against better seeds, which is rare but possible.
Not in one run. Run four 16-team brackets, one per region. Each run draws from the full pool, so a school now and then lands in two regions.
Gonzaga left the West Coast Conference for the rebuilt Pac-12 on July 1, 2026. The pool follows 2026-27 membership.
The High-major preset covers the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and Big East. The Pac-12, Mountain West, WCC, Atlantic 10, and American make up the Mid-major preset.
No. Seeds come from the shuffle, and games follow seed numbers alone. For a realistic bracket, seed the teams yourself from the AP poll or the NET rankings.