Perfect March Madness Bracket: Large Pools (2025)

Here I will provide advice when filling out a bracket for large pools. These are pools with 500+ people, such as national bracket pools or free-to-enter pools and sweepstakes with prizes. You have to get creative when filling out a bracket for large pools because you need to make choices that are likely but not popular, go-to selections. Here’s more to help you build the Perfect March Madness Bracket for Large Pools.

2025 NCAA Tournament March Madness Bracket Strategy & Betting Picks

Perfect March Madness Bracket for Large Pools

It’s that time of year again, March Madness has finally returned. One of the most exciting aspects is this week leading up to the tip-off of the games when you have to fill out your bracket. If you’re like me, you will stress over every little decision. If you aren’t like me, you will trust my advice and use this article to build your brackets.

Game Theory

Game theory is the name of the game here. The number one thing when winning a bracket pool is getting the champion right. Usually, I advise taking a unique champion but it’s more so leading up to the champion that matters. I’d put a lot of money on the champion being Duke, Florida or Auburn. Give me them over the field any day.

Now, if you’re keeping the champions from that group, I’d advise Auburn. Anyone listening to any analyst is going to either pick Duke or Florida because they are all the buzz and Auburn is relatively limping into the tournament, losing three of their last four games.

However, I’d argue Auburn just got bored of winning. They dominated throughout league play in one of the historically best conferences ever. They were locked into the No. 1 overall seed by the time the calendar turned over to March. This is an all-around excellent team that has something to prove after losing in the first round last year.

Nail Your Elite Eight

Getting your Elite Eight right and creative is another way to differentiate yourself from the rest of the field. In each of the last 11 tournaments, dating back to 2013, at least one No. 5 seed or worse has made the Final Four. There’s bound to be one of the No. 1 seeds who don’t make it. In 2023, it was all No. 4 seeds or greater. As Will Warren has noted, these are the best No. 1 seeds in the history of KenPom. But if one doesn’t make it, I’d expect it to be Houston.

Historically, the Cougars have dominated lesser opponents and struggled to play up in class under Kelvin Sampson. Last year they were almost bounced in the second round, with the Texas A&M Aggies taking them to overtime. They lost the next game. In this case, that’s the region I’m trying to identify a good value option to make the Final Four.

My choice is Clemson. The ACC has a remarkable reputation for doing well in the tournament and the Tigers made it to the Elite Eight last year with a lot of returning members. They’ve been under the radar in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) but are a top-25 team offensively and defensively.

Otherwise, perhaps Xavier is your team this year. They had a lot of preseason hype but were hit with some injuries on and off and have some of the best momentum entering March. Of course, they have to beat Texas, so that gives you some time to make your decision.

Be Creative

It’s March. It’s literally called March Madness, so don’t be afraid to get creative with your bracket-filling-out endeavors. I included an example below if you need inspiration.