As the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament is winding down, I decided to simply combine both days of “elite eight“ games into one entry.
For the first time since 2008, the final four consist of the number one seated teams from each of the four regions in the NCAA tournament. For my pics, I went 2–2. My two successful pics were Duke and Auburn. As for my unsuccessful pics, I did not pick any of the four teams who played in those other two games.
- In the east region final, #1 seed Duke blew out #2 seed Alabama 85–65. as I mentioned before, I have Duke winning the national championship; but I expected this game to be a little bit closer.
- In the south region final, #1 Auburn beat #2 seed Michigan State 70-64. i’m more of a Michigan fan than Michigan State; but I would like to have seen the Michigan State advance to the final four, even though my bracket had them losing in the Sweet 16
- Meanwhile, in the west regional final, #1 seed Florida defeated Texas Tech 84-79. At the number three seed, Texas Tech was actually the lowest seeded team to make the elite 8. Once again, I had neither team advancing this far on my bracket.
- Finally, in the midwest region, #1 seed Houston easily defeated #2 seed Tennessee 69-50. Once again, I had neither of these teams advancing to the elite eight on my bracket. 
On Saturday, Auburn will face Florida; while Duke faces Tennessee in the later game. My bracket has Duke and Auburn advancing to the championship where Duke will win. Let’s see how it goes…
I’m not really sure what to make of this, with all the number one seeds advancing to the final four. Somewhat argue that this is just an example of the proverbial cream rising to the top, but as I mentioned in an earlier post about my bracket pics, several sports writers have been saying how this year‘s tournament “sucks“. Their big argument for that was the fact that NIL payments are splitting the NCAA between the “halves“ and the “have nots“. I think either position seems legitimate 
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The article “Rob’s Men’s 2025 March Madness bracket, Elite 8 edition” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.
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