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The North Carolina Tar Heels were the last team into the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket and are heading for a first-round matchup against Ole Miss after winning a First Four matchup against San Diego State. Ole Miss is the No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament 2025, while North Carolina is a No. 11 seed, but the Tar Heels will carry plenty of momentum after their 95-68 win over the Aztecs. Is North Carolina a threat to be one of the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket-busters as a six-time national champion or does the road end Friday against the Rebels?

In the other First Four matchup on Tuesday, Alabama State scored a shocking 70-68 victory in the final seconds over St. Francis (PA) and the No. 16 seed in the South Region will now take on No. 1 overall seed Auburn on Thursday. How deep of a run can the Tigers make this season and what are the NCAA Tournament upsets that should be on your radar? Before making any 2025 March Madness bracket predictions, be sure to check out the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket picks from the proven computer model at SportsLine.

Their proven projection model has simulated every game in the tournament 10,000 times. It has absolutely crushed its March Madness picks recently, beating over 91 percent of all CBS Sports brackets in four of the past six tournaments. It was all over UConn's championship run a year ago and nailed 13 teams in the Sweet 16. It also nailed Alabama's Cinderella run to the Final Four as a 4-seed.

It knows how to spot an upset as well. The same model has produced brackets that have nailed 24 first-round upsets by double-digit seeds since its inception in 2016. There's simply no reason to rely on luck when there's proven technology to help you dominate your 2025 March Madness bracket picks. 

Now, with the 2025 NCAA bracket revealed, the model is simulating the matchups and its results are in. You can only see it over at SportsLine.

Three 2025 March Madness bracket games to watch

One of the most intriguing 2025 March Madness matchups to watch: No. 5 Michigan vs. No. 12 UC San Diego in the South region. Dusty May's first season in Ann Arbor yielded a Big Ten championship and earned the Wolverines their 32nd trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history. Michigan is led by seven-footers Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin, with Wolf having led Yale to an upset win over Auburn last season and Goldin being a key piece of May's FAU squad that made the Final Four in 2023. Meanwhile, UC San Diego is making its first March Madness appearance in its fifth Division I season. The Tritons are a 30-win team and ranked a surprising 36th in the KenPom efficiency rankings, which is the highest for a Big West squad in KenPom history.

Another 2025 NCAA Tournament matchup to keep an eye on is No. 8 Louisville vs. No. 9 Creighton in the South Region. The game is being played in Lexington, Kentucky, only 70 miles from the Cardinals' campus which should give them a significant home court advantage. Though Louisville appears to be underseeded as a No. 8 seed despite being ranked 10th in the current AP poll, the NCAA Tournament committee did them a solid with their location. Meanwhile, Creighton enters off a loss in the Big East Championship Game to St. John's, who earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. This will be the first game played of the Round of 64 on Thursday at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Another 2025 March Madness game to watch out for: No. 4 seed Texas A&M will battle No. 13 seed Yale in the South Region. The Aggies peaked at No. 7 in the AP Top 25 earlier this season but wound up going on a four-game losing streak during a challenging stretch of the schedule. However, they dug themselves out of their hole with a huge win over Auburn late in the regular season. The slide almost certainly pushed them down a seed line or two, and that means Texas A&M draws a program with recent giant-killing history. Yale beat an SEC team (Auburn) as a No. 13 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and John Poulakidas is back and averaging 19.2 points per game for the Bulldogs after a 28-point outburst in that upset a season ago. You can see the model's 2025 NCAA bracket picks here.

How to make 2025 NCAA bracket predictions

Who wins every tournament-defining matchup? And which teams will make surprising runs through the 2025 NCAA Tournament bracket? With the model's track record of calling bracket-busting upsets, you'll want to see which stunners it's calling this year before locking in any 2025 NCAA bracket picks.

So what's the optimal NCAA Tournament 2025 bracket? And which NCAA Tournament Cinderella teams will shock college basketball? Visit SportsLine now to see which double-digit seeds you can back with confidence, all from the model that called UConn's national title and nailed 13 Sweet 16 teams in 2024.