Live Results
Fetching from ESPN…
Standings
Real-time scores as the tournament plays out — picks were locked in on March 19
Tournament Progress
Round-by-round breakdown from ESPN
The Picks
Each AI was given the same prompt on March 19, 2026 — the day the first round tipped off
Bracket View
Visual bracket showing each AI's path to the championship
AI vs The Public
How do the AI picks compare to ESPN bracket challenge pick percentages?
Champion pick — AI vs public %
Source: ESPN Bracket Challenge
Pick agreement matrix
The Experiment
Same prompt. Same day. Four different answers. Here's what the data shows.
Bracket Accuracy
Before scoring picks, we checked: did each model even know the real tournament field?
On March 19, 2026 — the day Round of 64 games began — we asked each model for their full bracket predictions. Two models produced the actual 2026 tournament field. Two did not.
A+
Claude
64/64 teams correct
Perfect bracket structure on first attempt. Zero fabricated teams. Zero teams in wrong regions.
0 corrections needed
A-
Gemini
64/64 teams, format issues
All teams correct. Minor ambiguity in table format for some regional placements.
0 corrections needed
D
Grok
3 fabricated teams
Listed Marquette, Auburn, and Creighton — none are in the 2026 tournament. ~9 teams placed in wrong regions.
3 corrections needed
D
ChatGPT
33 fabricated teams
Generated a bracket from training data, not the real 2026 field. Duke (overall 1-seed) was listed as a 4-seed in the wrong region.
3 corrections needed
Key Finding
Two of four models could not produce the actual 2026 tournament field on the day games began. After multiple correction prompts, all brackets were fixed and are now scoreable. Full methodology documented in METHODOLOGY.md.