How To Create A Ncaa Bracket

2021 March Madness Bracket (Excel and Google Sheet)

Our favorite NCAA tournament is finally BACK! And we're ready with this year's March Madess Bracket tempaltes for Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Download links below!

First Four starts in...

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UPDATED For 2021!

Your 2021 March Madness Bracket template is here! Whether you are in charge of running your office pool, looking for a bracket to plan your bets, or just a really organized fan of college basketball, we've put together an easy to use spreadsheet for tracking this year's tournament in Excel or Google Sheets.

There are tons of downloadable March Madness brackets out there, so if you've come to us to download a copy, it's probably because you know that our sheets will contain cool features that others won't (we're spreadsheet addicts).

If, like us, you're interested in spreadsheets, keep reading below the links! If you just want to download your 2020 March Madness template, just jump to the bottom of the post.

We've added both an Excel and Google Sheets template version for the 2020 Women's NCAA Division 1 Basketball Championship. Thanks to Angel for the request!

What we Added

Okay, okay, we actually didn't add anything too exciting into the March Madness bracket spreadsheet other than some simple Data Validation. The idea came to us pretty late, so we were more focused on getting the template out for the beginning of the tournament.

The template has a section at the bottom for the "First Four" games which will be starting tomorrow! If you look at the main bracket, you'll see the placeholders such as "VAN / WICH" showing for the slots that are still undetermined. If you're betting on those slots don't worry, selecting your choice at the bottom will automatically update that game for the second round (After Vanderbilt Wins!).

first round ncaa selection animation

Don't worry, if you only need the template for the 2nd round, it works great for that too, just ignore (or even delete) the first round section at the bottom.

As for the rest of the bracket, you can simply select from a dropdown out of the two teams that you had selected in the previous round. We thought this was a pretty basic idea, but we hadn't seen it in any of the other March Madness spreadsheet templates we had looked at, so we figured we'd make one. And it works just as you'd expect.

Demo of our march madness bracket selection working automatically

Saving your 2021 March Madness Picks

Once you (or your friends) have locked in that perfect bracket and need to send it off to the pool organizer, the best thing to do is either print it or export it as PDF. This ensures that your file isn't easily or accidentally edited and you can claim your undisputed victory prize.

To save the file as a PDF in Google Sheets, simply go to the File menu and select Download as, and then choose the .pdf option.

save the march madness bracket as a pdf

For the best results, make sure you turn off gridlines and away you go!

Export your Google Sheets with gridlines

Thanks and Good luck with your NCAA bracket! If you need some help with your picks, check out the post from FiveThrityEight on some data-backed March Madness predictions.

Updates

Mar 26, 2021

We've populated the Women's 2021 Google Sheets and Excel template with this year's teams.
We've updated the dates on both the men and women's brackets.

Mar 15, 2021

We've populated the teams for the Men's 2021 NCAA Tournament Google Sheets and Excel templates.
We'll be updating the Women's teams after the selection tonight!

Feb 27, 2021

We've cleared the bracket to get ready for the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
We'll add the teams on March 15 after Selection Sunday, but feel free to download the blank bracket now!

Mar 18, 2019

The Selections from yesterday are in! The Google Sheet and Excel version of the Men's 2019 NCAA Bracket have been updated with this year's teams.

Feb 20, 2019

We've cleared the bracket to get ready for this years teams.
We'll be filling in the teams come Selection Sunday, but feel free to grab the blank brackets now!

March 15, 2018

Updated the Men's bracket to include the results for the First Four
Updated the Women's bracket with all Selections

March 12, 2018

The Selections are in! The Google Sheet and Excel version of the Men's NCAA Bracket have been updated with this year's teams.
Added a Total Points Tiebreaker slot for the championship game. (Suggested by Jason)

Feb 21, 2018

I've cleared both the Microsoft Excel template and the Google Sheets version for both the Men's and Woman's Tournament. We'll update it come Selection Sunday
I've updated the dates of the tourney this year, though I think the April 2nd dates from the official site may be wrong

Join the 103,617 Basketball Fans

that are already using our bracket!

Download the Men's 2021 March Madness Bracket!

Choose your spreadsheet preference

Download the Women's 2021 March Madness Bracket!

Choose your spreadsheet preference

111 thoughts on "2021 March Madness Bracket (Excel and Google Sheet)"

On a side note, don't worry Vandy you'll get 'em next year. Good luck in the NIT. (I probably should have made an NIT bracket for the true fans out there)
1. Do you have this for the 2016 NCAA Women's Bracket, by chance? 🙂
  1. We do now!
    Thanks for the suggestion! Good luck with your bracket!
    1. Thank you!
      1. Just FYI … the buttons are backwards on the Women's Bracket. The Google Sheets button downloads an Excel sheet and the Excel button takes you to a Google Sheets. 🙂
      2. Whoops!
        I've fixed them now, thanks for letting me know!
2. Thanks for this!
  
  Should the 2019 versions be pre-populating the selections?
  
  -Tim
  1. No worries. If you download again it's populated with yesterday's picks!
    
    Good luck with your bracket!
    1. The women's bracket did not pre-populate (Google Sheets). Is this still in the works?
      Thank you.
      1. Should be working properly now! Let me know if you have any trouble and good luck with your picks!
I downloaded a copy of the bracket this morning to fill in my bracket and I noticed only one side of the bracket was working. The drop down menus on the right side of the bracket has the teams from the left side of the bracket listed.
1. Uh Oh! Thanks for pointing that out! Not sure what happened there. I've updated it again so it should be working and be up-to-date for the completed games. Good luck with your picks!
When will the new spreadsheet for 2016 post? The one with the teams populated?
1. Hey Don,
  
  I've updated the spreadsheet with the teams populated from yesterday's selection. Good luck with your picks!
Thanks for the bracket. This will save me a lot of time.
1. No problem Dave! Thanks for the comment and good luck with your picks!
Looks perfect. Great idea that I couldn't find last year. thanks.
1. So glad to hear it Thomas! Good luck with your March Madness picks!
Amazing sheet – thanks Plexkits!
1. My pleasure! Good luck with your picks!
Hi. Will you be making a woman's bracket this year, too?
1. Hey Mary – Definitely! Should have it updated shortly!
  1. Terrific! Thanks.
Just downloaded .. very nice. However, the "first four" games updates don't work.
1. Thanks Ken! Yeah, don't worry after selection Sunday I'll have it working for the First Four
Ummmm….Vandy is in it….
1. The comment you're referring to is from a previous year! I just update the bracket without deleting comments.
  
  Go VANDY!
Are you going to populate the Women's Google Sheet for 2017?
Can you populate the Womens Bracket?
1. Hey Peter – I'll try to get to it soon, I know I've already missed the start! Hope your bracket is going well!
the 2017 excel version of the Womens brackets is blank (e.g., not pre-populated with the team names). Will you record the team names today?
1. Hey Paul,
  
  That was the plan, but I've been a bit behind! Hopefully I'll have both the brackets updated soon!
Is there any way to pull the scores from a website like ESPN and put them in the bracket to move teams on automatically based on who has the higher score?
1. Hey Parker,
  
  That would be amazing. I won't be able to do something like that for this season, but I'll see what I can come up with for next year. I wonder if there are any API's for services like that. I'll look into and let you know!
1. WOW! Thanks for sharing Wells. That's pretty awesome.
I like the this is set up, could u create a nfl playoff bracket the same way. I would for all picks to be sent to a spreadsheet with there names so all participants can see everybody results
Thats great !!!

Is there a way to fill the brackets automatically based on a list with different categories?
1. Do you mean automatically fill the first round based on a seperate list?
So, will the bracket automatically fill up the teams after selection Sunday or will I need to manually type them in? Thanks!
1. Hey Jack! Thanks for downloading.
  
  This version is just the blank one, so it won't auto update. But if you come back here after selection Sunday you can download the populated version, the links will be updated as soon as they announce the teams.
  
  Good luck with your picks!
Nice work. How about a spot for a tiebreaker (total points) championship game
1. Great idea! Just added a Total Points Tiebreaker spot to the Excel and Google Sheets version of the Men's bracket.
Thought about doing one where you can add point spreads? We play one where we draw teams then winner is determined each game by team that covers point spread.
1. I hadn't before, but that's a great idea!
PLAY IN TEAMS NOT SHOWING IN BRACKET UNLESS I TYPE IN BOTH SPOTS
ALSO HAVE TO DO Delete one when i pick a winner
1. Hey Jon, I hadn't updated the sheets yet after the selection yesterday, but they're updated now.
  
  Nope, the dropdown automatically fill in from who you pick in the previous round. The teams playing in the First Four automatically update the name in the bracket based on the winner you pick at the bottom.
  
  Good luck with your bracket this year!
I don't have drop downs and the bracket has no teams
1. Hey Terry – I hadn't had a chance to update yet after yesterday, but they're updated now.
  Good luck with your picks!
The elite 8 rounds don't have drop downs.
1. They seem to be working on mine. What version of Excel are you using? Sometimes the dropdown shows up funny on merged cells. In the new version of Excel sometimes it shows up closer to the middle, because that's the first merged cell.
Awesome Bracket Man!

Question is there a way to make a "Master Bracket" with subsequent brackets in other tabs. That way you can do automatic scoring for each round and all the subsequent brackets verify and score off the Master?
1. Thanks! No there isn't at the moment, but that's a sweet idea. Let me see what I can do.
This information is worth everyone's attention. Where can I find out more?
1. 1. Fantastic! Thanks so much!
    1. My pleasure Nancy!
      Good luck with your picks!
When I download the 2019 Men's sheets for either excel or google sheets, none of the teams are loaded. Are they supposed to be or do I type in all the teams? I don't mind typing them in, but your example above suggests that the teams should be there already filled out.
1. Hey Andrew,
  
  Thanks for downloading! The bracket is blank for now just because the teams that will be in the tournament haven't been selected yet. If you check back on or after Selection Sunday I will update both versions to include this years lineup.
  
  Good luck with your picks!
Hi Rick,
Do you have a score tracker tab for this spreadsheet
1. Hey Susan,
  
  I actually don't have one yet! I'll try to put on together soon!
  
  Good luck with your brackets!
when will the organizer template be posted?
1. Hey Peter,
  
  That's a great idea! I actually haven't made an organizer template yet. Let me see what I can do!
I suggested to my father to download the women's tournament bracket spreadsheet and the women's teams are not populated. Have I missed something on this Google Sheet? The men's Google Sheet is good to go.
1. Completely my mistake! The link for the women's bracket has been updated now for both the Excel and Google Sheet!
How does this work if you want Google Sheets to be where everybody creates their own bracket and submits it to my pool? I tried it with my personal account and my school account. When I made picks, it would change. Am I missing a step?
1. Hey James,
  
  Thanks for downloading! Yeah, once you make a copy to your Google Account it would essentially be a single file, so if you shared that link with edit access with everyone, they would all be controlling the same version of the Google Sheet. You'd need to have everyone make their own copy. The link on our page has the Copy Code added to it, so when you follow the link you are automatically making a copy instead of editing the original. You could send that link to everyone in your pool to make their own or you could add "/copy" to the end of your link if you've made changes that you want to share to your version of the march madness bracket in Google Sheets.
  
  Let me know if that works for you & good luck with your picks!
Alright, I've cleared it for this year. I'll be updating the new bracket with the teams after selection Sunday. Just over 2 weeks to go!
I love this website I use to do bracketology
1. Thanks so much Jack! Really appreciate it you taking the time to let me know.
This looks awesome!
I've been using paper, then entering everybody's picks via a Java program that I wrote. But this I could give them and have them do it.
Right now the Excel Men's 2021 just pops back to the same page. Just not there yet?
thanks
Mike
1. Awesome thanks so much Mike!
  
  I just tested and seems to be working for me, make sure your browser isn't blocking new windows as it opens the download link in a new tab.
  Let me know if you're still having trouble.
  
  Thanks again!
  1. Weirdly, I tried again tonight. Click on Excel, after a slight delay it comes back to the same page.
    I right-click on Excel and choose "open in link in another tab" and it downloads.
    So I have it, but if anybody else asks …
    (This is in Chrome)
    Thanks
    Mike
    1. Very odd, I'll see if I can fix that. But thanks so much for posting your workaround. Appreciate it. Good luck with your bracket this year!
How do I request access and get it?
1. Hey Ashley,
  
  Clicking the links above should bring you to a screen that allows you to copy the Sheets document. If not, it's most likely related to an organizational GSuite account rule. You could try with your personal account. You shouldn't have to request to access it. The majority of the time I see this happening are with School GSuite accounts that the administrators have locked down.
When I download the bracket it says that google blocks it and I did check to see if my settings are wrong but they are right. Can you fix that?
1. Not sure what's going on, seems to be working for me. Are you logged in on a school Gsuite account? Try your personal if so.
When should I come back to make a copy of the bracket…so that teams are there?
1. Hey Brooke, thanks for taking the time to check out my bracket. I'll most likely have it updated this evening, give me an hour or two after the selection.
  
  Good luck with your picks!
When will the teams be added….thanks
1. They're updated now! Thanks for checking it out.
Good morning- I do not see the teams listed yet in the Excel bracket. Will you be updating soon? Thanks!
1. Hi Beth,
  
  The sheet has been updated with this year's teams.
  
  Good luck with your bracket!
Rick – you work is terrific. I look forward to it every year. Will the completed sheet be available today?
1. Thanks Paul! Really appreciate it. Populated sheet is live now!
  
  Thanks again for taking the time to comment!
Excel option does not have teams in there
1. Link has been fixed for the Excel version.
will this fit on 1 page to print it out?

also, when I open up the excel it does not have any teams populated.
1. Yeah, just set your scaling in print options to whatever you want.
  Good luck with your bracket!
Font size 10 seems so small & hard to see when it's printed
When Is the womens bracket ready?
1. The selection for women's was just last night, so I'll try to get it ready for today.
I just wanted to say thank you for organizing and putting this together. I am using this with my students this year. I will use both the Men's and Women's brackets. THANK YOU! 🙂
1. That's so nice to hear. I really appreciate you taking your time to let me know.
  All the best, and good luck with your bracket!
I too will be using the men's and women's brackets with my 4th graders. When do you think the women's bracket will include team names? Thanks for all you do!
1. Whoops! I should have read the comments above mine. Sorry.
  1. No worries at all! It's been updated now, good luck with your project! Sounds like a great class!
    1. Good afternoon, Rick! We are using Google Sheets to complete our Men's and Women's brackets. However, we're running into a snag with half of the class. I know the issue is in settings, but how can we successfully fill out our brackets without changing someone else's picks? Do I need to make 26 individual Google Sheet copies? Thanks again for your time.
      1. Hey Brian,
        
        Yeah, if you are all sharing the same link, you would essentially just be editing one copy of the bracket. You could handle either two ways, by making copies of the whole spreadsheet for each student or making a new tab at the bottom for each student.
        
        To duplicate the sheet itself, have each student go to File > Make a copy and title theirs "Bracket – Rick" or something like that.
        To duplicate the tab, just right click and copy at the bottom, rename the tab after the student.
        
        If you copy the sheets it will be easier for the students to manger theirs, BUT at the end you'll have XX number of files to check and you'll need the students to all send you the URL of theirs.
        
        If you copy the tabs, it will be easier to see everything in one place, but you'll most likely have students accidentally editing someone else's tab. You could probably use the history to see who made what changes if there were any disputes.
        
        In the very limited knowledge of your project I have, I'd probably say duplicating the tabs is the way to go.
        
        Hope that helps!
      2. Disregard! Had a tech pro help me after school. Everything is good to go!
Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn. Solid help here my friend!! I made a ton of copies, named them for all my family, put them in a Google Drive folder with a shared link and now all can go in and fill theirs out!! No more "Hey, everyone join ESPN or CBS or whatever"!!! Awesome stuff y'all.
1. Hey Kirk,
  
  Yeah, that's awesome! So glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know!
  
  Good luck with your brackets!
Go Ohio state.
It says access denied on google sheets.
1. You're probably trying to access thorough a student account where your school doesn't allow outside files like this. Try while logged into a regular Gmail account
I didn't even realize that was a thing.
Hey man, you got a 2021 NBA bracket by chance?
This is so great I've been searching for months for a March Madness bracket that you can edit the teams and it has the first four. I would rate it 5 stars.
1. Hey thanks! So glad you like it!