The 2018 NCAA Tournament bracket is out, and that means it's time to fill out your bracket.
Will the chalk dominate the NCAA Tournament again?
Last year, North Carolina beat Gonzaga in a battle of No. 1 seeds, a reminder that Cinderella rarely wins the Big Dance. Gonzaga, which once wore the Cinderella label, made the Final Four as a No. 1 seed. That's our annual reminder: Stick with the percentages if you want to win your bracket pool.
MARCH MADNESS: Printable NCAA Tournament bracket
There will be upsets in the first weekend, but chalk tends to be the story from the Sweet 16 to the Final Four and ultimately in the championship game. Since the Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 20 of the 33 national champions were No. 1 seeds.
Here's a seeding breakdown of the participants in the Sweet 16, Final Four and championship game in the expanded bracket era.
March Madness bracket tips: Play the odds when picking ...
Sweet 16
| No. 1: 86.4 (114 out of 132) |
| No. 8: 9.8 (13 out of 132) |
| No. 9: 3.8 (5 out of 132) |
| No. 16: 0 (0 out of 132) |
| No. 2: 62.9 (83 out of 132) |
| No. 7: 18.9 (25 out of 132) |
| No. 10: 17.4 (23 out of 132) |
| No. 15 0.8 (1 out of 132) |
| No. 3: 51.5 (68 out of 132) |
| No. 6: 31.8 (42 out of 132) |
| No. 11: 15.2 (20 out of 132) |
| No. 14: 1.5 (2 out of 132) |
| No. 4: 47.7 (63 out of 132) |
| No. 5: 32.6 (43 out of 132) |
| No. 12: 15.2 (20 out of 132) |
| No. 13: 4.5 (6 out of 132) |
It's a fact: Seeds 1-4 make up 62.1 percent of the Sweet 16 field since 1984-85, and that included 12 of the 16 teams in last year's field. Seeds 13-16, meanwhile, have only accounted for nine Sweet 16 appearances.
Final Four
| No. 1: 40.9 (54 of 132) |
| No. 2: 20.5 (27 of 132) |
| No. 3: 12.1 (16 of 132) |
| No. 4: 9.8 (13 of 132) |
| No. 5: 4.5 (6 of 132) |
| No. 6: 2.3 (3 of 132) |
| No. 7: 2.3 (3 of 132) |
| No. 8: 3.9 (5 of 132) |
| No. 9: 0.8 (1 of 132) |
| No. 10 0.8 (1 of 132) |
| No. 11: 2.3 (3 of 132) |
It's a fact: The top 16 seeds in tournament — of the teams seeded No. 1-4 — have accounted for 110 of 132 possible Final Four appearances. That's 83.3 percent of the time. Only 22 teams seeded lower than No. 4 have made the Final Four since 1985.
MORE: Can you trust Kansas this time?
National championship game
| No. 1: 50.0 (33 of 66) |
| No. 2: 18.2 (12 of 66) |
| No. 3: 13.6 (9 of 66) |
| No. 4: 4.5 (3 of 66) |
| No. 5: 4.5 (3 of 66) |
| No. 6: 3.0 (2 of 66) |
| No. 7: 1.5 (1 of 66) |
| No. 8: 4.5 (3 of 66) |
It's a fact: North Carolina and Gonzaga both made the championship game as a No. 1 seed last season, meaning half of the title game participants in the expanded bracket era have been No. 1 seeds. No team ranked lower than a No. 8 seed has made the championship game in the 64-team era. Villanova (1985), Butler (2011) and Kentucky (2014) are the No. 8 seeds to make the championship game.
NCAA BRACKET BREAKDOWNS:
East | South | Midwest | West
National champion pick
| No. 1: 60.6 (20 of 33) |
| No. 2: 15.2 (5 of 33) |
| No. 3: 12.1 (4 of 33) |
| No. 4: 3.0 (1 of 33) |
| No. 6: 3.0 (1 of 33) |
| No. 7: 3.0 (1 of 33) |
| No. 8: 3.0 (1 of 33) |
It's a fact: Cinderella almost never happens. Connecticut, which won the tournament as a No. 3 in 2011 and as a No. 7 in 2014, is the only school which wasn't a No. 1 or No. 2 that won the tournament in the last 10 years.
