March Madness Predictions 2022

Pickswise is the home of March Madness predictions. Our NCAA experts analyze the stats, data, and team news to give you the best March Madness predictions for each of the 67 games throughout the tournament. If you’re looking for the best March Madness predictions, we have you covered.

A Moneyline bet put simply is betting on one team to beat another. Betting in its simplest form. However, with March Madness predictions, in particular, it is not far fetched for an overwhelming favorite to be priced as short as -2500, which may be unappealing to many bettors. The majority of March Madness games however are competitive, particularly in the later rounds and our experts at Pickswise spend hours looking through matchups, team news and analyzing the statistics, trends, and data for each of the 67 games on the March Madness schedule to unearth the best value March Madness Picks. 

In addition to our free daily March Madness Predictions and Picks, we offer insight into the March Madness futures markets from the outright winner to the Final Four.

A single-elimination style tournament like March Madness means a team’s bid to win it all can end in a flash. Upsets are a mainstay of the tournament, and with each one, the March Madness Bracket gets a major reshuffle, as do the futures betting lines. Our experts will be on hand throughout the entire tournament to react to any upsets and major betting changes round-by-round to unearth the best free March Madness Picks and predictions across all of the futures markets.  

March Madness is so aptly named with the tournament being single-elimination from the jump and upsets being a big part of the tournament. Even in a tournament of this nature, some trends have appeared in recent years that should be considered ahead of your March Madness betting. It is also worth considering that these are mainly based on a team’s ranking, which is given by the selection committee so they should still be taken with a pinch of salt.

Only One #1 Seed Has Ever Lost In The First Round

It’s not the most obscure betting trend, but one worth reiterating. With the schedule set around those seeds, #1 seeds have a great record in the first round vs the 16th ranked sides but are always big favorites to win

Number 1 seeds were unbeaten in the first round until as recently as 2018 when the #16 UMBC beat #1 Virginia.

#1 Seeds Are Also A Historically Safe Bet In The Second Round

So we know that all #1 seeds have won in the first round except one, but how do they fare in the second round? Well, pretty good. Not quite as much a lock as the first Round but since 1985 #1 seeds have gone 123-20 in the second round, for a win percentage of 86%

First Round – 5 seeds vs 12 seeds

March Madness upsets are a mainstay of the bracket, and it’s worth picking a few of them in your bracket in the early rounds. While lower-ranked teams have a poor record in the latter stages of March Madness – with no team seeded 12 or lower ever reaching the Final Four, they are usually worth a look in the first two rounds.

The 12 vs 5 upset is one of the more popular options in brackets each year, but for good reason.

Since the tournament was expanded in 1985, 12th seeds have a 48-92 record against 5th seeds, equating to a 34% win-rate, just over a third. For comparison, 13th seeds only have a record of 30-110 (21%) against 4th seeds so there is a big drop off, for just one seed either way.

Since 1985, at least one 12th seed has advanced into the second round in all bar 5 March Madness tournaments.