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The internet reacts to the March Madness bracket

Every year the bracket drops, the internet loses its mind. This year was no different.

Chance Townsend

on March 16, 2026

A view of NCAA March Madness and Wilson logos prior to the game between the Wisconsin Badgers and the UCLA Bruins

Credit: Melina Pizano/Getty Images

March Madness is here. The field is set for the 2026 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, and Selection Sunday did exactly what Selection Sunday always does — gave 68 fanbases a reason to either celebrate or lose their minds on social media. The discourse was, as tradition demands, extremely annoying.

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The biggest flashpoint was the treatment of the Miami Redhawks — Miami, Ohio, not the other one — who were begrudgingly admitted into the tournament as a play-in team despite finishing with the first undefeated regular season since the 2020-21 Gonzaga Bulldogs. For months, pundits and fans spent an exhausting amount of energy debating whether the Redhawks would even deserve an at-large bid if they so much as dropped a single game. They finally did, falling in the MAC Championship quarterfinals, and apparently, going 31-1 still wasn't enough to earn any respect from the committee.

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Instead of a clean Round of 64 berth, Miami (OH) now has to survive the First Four — the tournament's opening round play-in bracket featuring the four lowest-seeded at-large teams and the four weakest conference champions. Even still, people are not happy.

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The selection committee's decision to keep Auburn out, however, was met with widespread approval from pretty much everyone who isn't an Auburn fan. The War Eagles' omission was made all the more satisfying by the weeks of national airtime eaten up by former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl — father of current Auburn coach Steven Pearl — passionately lobbying for a team with 16 losses to leapfrog a squad that went 31-1. The college basketball world heard the argument, considered it, and was very glad the committee did not.

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Outside of the Miami (OH) and Auburn discourse, Selection Sunday and the return of March Madness this year mean a great collection of really good tweets.

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Where to get a printable March Madness bracket?

If you like to keep things old school, there are several places to find printable, color brackets for this year's Men's and Women's tournaments.

They can be found, linked here, over at the websites of ESPN, CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports, The Athletic, USA Today, and, of course, the NCAA's official website. They can also be found on most local news sites as well.

Topics Sports

Chance Townsend

Assistant Editor, General Assignments

Chance Townsend is the General Assignments Editor at Mashable, covering tech, video games, dating apps, digital culture, and whatever else comes his way. He has a Master's in Journalism from the University of North Texas and is a proud orange cat father. His writing has also appeared in PC Mag and Mother Jones.

In his free time, he cooks, loves to sleep, and greatly enjoys Detroit sports. If you have any tips or want to talk shop about the Lions, you can reach out to him on Bluesky @offbrandchance.bsky.social or by email at [email protected].