ESPN Tournament Challenge 2025: No. 1 Bracket Game, Back for Fans with ‘Bracketbrain’

• New features, tools, animations make completing brackets, following results even easier, faster, more fun
• Tournament brackets available Sunday night, March 16, following Selection Sunday shows on ESPN
• More than $250,000 in prizes available for Men’s, Women’s Tournament Challenge
• Tournament Challenge Marathon: Five straight days of analysis, advice and more, starting Sunday night
• Exclusive tools for ESPN+ subscribers: Game Predictor, Bracket Predictor, Bracket Analyzer, more

Serving any and all fans afflicted with “BracketBrain” this season, ESPN Tournament Challenge, the No. 1 most popular college basketball bracket game for both the men’s and women’s tournaments, is open now on ESPN.com and the ESPN Tournament Challenge App, ESPN App, and ESPN Fantasy App.

ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge presented by Allstate, Molson Coors, Chick-Fil-A, and Fortnite, and Women’s Tournament Challenge with sponsors Nissan, Allstate and Capital One, allow fans to compete with friends, family and others – including celebrities and ESPN personalities – by predicting the winner of each tournament game from the Round of 64 through the championship final.

A Fan-Inspired Game Continuing to Evolve
Building on last year’s all-new, reimagined design and features – including BracketCast, Birds-Eye View, Group Forecast, and more – ESPN Tournament Challenge continues its evolution in 2025 with enhanced animations, design cues and other features that capture the energy of college tournament basketball, while improving  the core experience for fans to make it even easier to create, join and invite friends to groups and follow their brackets, all in one app.

• Video: ESPN Tournament Challenge 2025
• Images: New features and design elements
• Video: “BracketBrain”

New and unique features for 2025:

• Improved Groups Experience– Fans can easily find and join “Popular Groups” (Sportscenter, First Take etc.) and groups dedicated to their favorite schools in the new “Fans of Groups” section. They can also utilize new group management tools to more easily build and share the groups they create.
• Expanded Bird’s-Eye View – Introduced last year, the highly popular Birds-Eye View feature now allows fans to zoom-out on any bracket, in addition to their own, to see the entire bracket on a smartphone and easily share Final Four and championship picks.
• Enhanced Champion Share Experience– Share your Champion celebration in a single tap with a new, dynamic animation matching the championship team’s school colors, along with a view of the other Final Four selections.
• Optimized Quick Bracket– For fans who find it challenging to fill out the maximum 25 brackets, submitting multiple brackets is easier than ever with various autofill options, including Smart Bracket powered by ESPN Analytics and the ability to choose from one of many Celebrity Brackets from favorite ESPN personalities.
• Bracket Lock Countdown – Once a fan creates a bracket, a clock at the top of the My Brackets page keeps track of the last chance to submit brackets, counting down the time remaining until all brackets are locked. 
• Perfect Bracket Indicator – In addition to the Perfect Bracket page introduced last year, fans viewing brackets on the Tournament Challenge, ESPN Fantasy and ESPN apps will see a new icon indicating brackets that remain perfect.

Special Analytics Tools Exclusively for ESPN+ Subscribers
Fans looking for an edge while completing both men’s and women’s brackets can turn to exclusive tools available only to ESPN+ subscribers.

• ESPN+ Game Predictor uses trends and season performance to determine the odds of each winner in every matchup throughout the tournament. Now viewable in the Matchup Preview with dynamic themes and enhanced analytics. 
• ESPN+Bracket Predictor uses predictions and advanced data to help fans evaluate every matchup, before importing picks into their Tournament Challenge bracket.
• ESPN+Bracket Analyzer uses objective data to provide a round-by-round forecast of odds and grades brackets based on projected correct picks.

The Same No. 1 Bracket Game Fans Love
As always, fans can submit up to 25 brackets and join up to 10 groups each at ESPN.com/bracket for Men’s Tournament Challenge and ESPN.com/tcwomen for Women’s Tournament Challenge.

• The ESPN Tournament Challenge App allows fans to create and join groups, and to quickly navigate between men’s and women’s brackets, sorting by total points, maximum points or alphabetically.
• The Tournament Challenge App also gives fans expert analysis and matchup previews, opt-in push notifications for up-to-the-second scores, news and video updates, and the ability to pre-fill brackets before Selection Sunday.
• Like all ESPN Fantasy games, Tournament Challenge is free to play.

Perfect Bracket or Busted Bracket, No Worries!
Whether a fan’s bracket is perfect through the Round of 64 or busted before the first night is over, ESPN Tournament Challenge keeps the fun going.

• Perfect Bracket Tracker is a fun and shareable way for fans to track in real-time the number of perfect brackets remaining, as well as the games that have had, and could potentially have, the most impact on perfect brackets.
• Starting with the Sweet 16, the Men’s Tournament Challenge Second Chance presented by Chick-fil-A, and the Women’s Tournament Challenge Second Chance sponsored by Invesco, will give all fans another shot at glory with $50,000 in prizes up for grabs. Both Second Chance games will be available to play in the ESPN Tournament Challenge App.

The Fun Begins on Selection Sunday
ESPN Tournament Challenge brackets for both men’s and women’s games will be available to complete and submit following the conclusion of Selection Sunday shows on ESPN on Sunday, March 16.

• Bracketology presented by ­­­­­­­­­­­Lowe’sfor the men’s tournament begins at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, airing live from Nashville, site of the SEC Tournament.  Rece Davis will host along with Jay Bilas, Seth Greenberg and Jay Williams.
• TheNCAA Women’s Selection Special presented by Capital One starts at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. Elle Duncan will host, with Andraya Carter, Rebecca Lobo, Carolyn Peck, and Charlie Creme as analysts, and Holly Rowe reporting.

Tournament Challenge Marathon 2025
Providing valuable advice for fans hoping to win an ESPN Tournament Challenge Grand Prize, ESPN’s Tournament Challenge Marathon presented by ESPN BET Sportsbook will present in-depth, up-to-the-minute bracket analysis and college basketball insight for both the men’s and women’s tournaments on popular ESPN shows, including SportsCenter, Get Up, First Take, NBA Today, ESPN BET Live, and Unsportsmanlike.

• TheTournament Challenge Marathon starts Sunday, March 16, when the men’s and women’s tournament brackets are announced, and continues through Friday, March 21, when the women’s Round of 64 tips off.
• Immediately following both Selection Sunday shows, special editions ofWomen’s Bracketology presented by Lowe’s (9 to 10 p.m. ET, ESPN2) and Men’s Bracketology presented by Lowe’s (10 to 11 p.m. ET, ESPN2) will break down the respective fields, with expert analysis for filling out the brackets.
• Duncan will host Women’s Bracketology with Carter, Lobo, Peck, Creme, and Rowe. Kevin Connors will host Men’s Bracketology alongside Tom Crean, Jimmy Dykes, Sean Farnham, and Josh Pastner.
• Men’s Bracketologywill air on Monday, March 17, from 9 to 11 p.m. ET, on ESPN2, providing fans with the best tips and analysis for filling out brackets.

ESPN Tournament Challenge Prizes
Both the Men’s Tournament Challenge and Women’s Tournament Challenge are each providing fans with chances to win $135,000 in total prizes.

• Fans who pick the National Champion will be automatically entered into a random drawing to win one of 20 Grand Prizes of $5,000 each. 
• Also, fans who fill out and enter 25 brackets in either game will have a chance to win 25 randomly drawn prizes of $1,000.
• And new this year, fans who create a group with 10 entrants or more will be eligible to win a Group Creator Prize of $10,000.
• Entries forMen’s Tournament Challenge will be accepted until prior to tip-off of the tournament’s Round of 64 at 12:15 pm ET on Thursday, March 20. Women’s Tournament Challenge will accept registration until prior to tip-off of the first game at 11:30 am ET on Friday, March 21.

By Far the No. 1 Most Popular Bracket Game
In 2024, ESPN Men’s Tournament Challenge collected 22.6 million completed brackets before the start of the tournament, the most ever for the No. 1 college basketball bracket game.

• At the peak period of entries shortly before the start of the tournament, fans registered more than 27,555 brackets per minute.
• Participation in the last year’s ESPN Women’s Tournament Challenge more than doubled since 2019, growing by +103%, part of the significant upward trend in the popularity of women’s sports and women’s basketball in particular.

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