Three hundred and fourteen brackets walked in. Ten walked out with cash. And one walked out wearing a crown. Friends, here is your 2026 Mimosa March Madness final leaderboard (with winnings):

Out of $2,640 in the prize pool (after site fees and bonuses), SoarinOverWDW takes home a cool $1,056 — and she earned every penny. SoarinOverWDW didn't sneak up on anybody. Korrina started in first place after Round 1 (sharing the $100 bonus with Turn Your Head and Acuff) — and stayed there. While the rest of the field spent the tournament chasing, clawing, and eventually sobbing into their mimosas, SoarinOverWDW was blissfully floating above the fray in Orlando, completely unbothered, even by an Eiffel Tower that is oddly curved for some reason (IYKYK).

Final score: 422 points. First place in Round 1. First place in the end. The bracket wire-to-wire champion of a 314-entry field. Congrats!

In fact, her performance was so dominating, she didn't even have to get the champ right to take home the prize,  Who was, by the way...

Michigan 69, UConn 63: The Wolverines Are Champions

It wasn't pretty. It wasn't a blowout. But Michigan won the 2026 national championship on Monday night in Indianapolis, beating UConn 69-63 to claim the program's first title since 1989 — and end the Big Ten's 25-year men's basketball championship drought.

The Wolverines entered the title game having averaged 21.6 points of margin in their first five tournament games, becoming the first team ever to score 90+ points in each of the first five rounds. Lucas Oil Stadium apparently put a dent in that streak: Michigan shot 2-of-15 from three in the championship and couldn't find the rim from deep for the entire first half.

Fortunately for Wolverines fans, Elliot Cadeau had other plans. The junior guard, who was named Final Four Most Outstanding Player, led all scorers with 19 points. He did it while Yaxel Lendeborg — Michigan's leading scorer and Big Ten Player of the Year — played through a sprained MCL and a rolled ankle, finishing with 13 gutty points. Morez Johnson Jr. added a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) and was the Wolverines' defensive anchor all night, logging four second-half blocks and guarding every position on the floor.

UConn wasn't going quietly. The Huskies — who came in 6-0 all-time in title games — kept it close throughout, and with under a minute to go, Solo Ball took it upon himself (see what I did there) to bank in a three to cut it to 67-63. But Alex Karaban couldn't convert the shot that would have made it a one-possession game, and Michigan closed it out at the free throw line, going 25-of-28 from the stripe on the night. The Wolverines led for 75% of the game and never trailed in the second half.

Which brings us to...

One Shining Moment

Also in the money was Baby B, except for the wrong reasons.  Baby B finished dead last and wins the $20 bracket for worst performance.  Enjoy your consolation prize!

We also have an award for best bracket name, and there were a LOT of strong contenders.  A few notables:

Self-Deprecating

Brackets that knew exactly what they were getting into.

• Out by the 2nd round  (Final: 21st of 314) — Named with grim resignation. Finished 21st. The prophecy aged terribly.

• I Never Win This Thing  (Final: 99th of 314) — The tradition continues.

• Even The Losers Get Lucky Sometime  (Final: 166th of 314) — True, but not in this instance.

• Hoping I Beat The Coin Flip  (Final: 176th of 314) — This is me, and I failed to beat the coin flip.  Welp.

Sports Reference & Basketball Wordplay

Names that required at least a passing familiarity with the sport.

• I wanna sHOOP baby  (Final: 4th of 314) — Salt-N-Pepa is always good to have in your corner.

• Money in the Bracket  (Final: 79th of 314) — Except when there's not.

• There Will be Blue Bloods  (Final: 64th of 314)

• Duke There It Is  (Final: 158th of 314)

• Hoosier Cares? We're A Football School Now  (Final: 153rd of 314)

Pop Culture & Wordplay

Names that reward the pop-culturally literate.

• My name's not Slick, it's Hoiberg. Fred F*cking Hoiberg!  (Final: 30th of 314) — Pulp Fiction meets the Big Ten's most chaotic coaching era. Finished 30th.

• Grown Ass-Man 4: Too Fast, Too Furious  (Final: 66th of 314)

• Turn yer head to the left and Acuff  (Final: 44th of 314) 

Booze-Themed

Fitting for a pool called Mimosa March Madness, but probably just references to Duke.

• Top Shelf Boozer  (Final: 137th of 314)

• Drunk on Booz  (Final: 151st of 314)

• Too Much Booz  (Final: 131st of 314)

Oddly Specific & Contextual Mysteries

My favorite category, bracket names that raise more questions than they answer.

• Letting My Cat Pick This Year  (Final: 10th of 314) — The cat finished 10th, the highest finish ever for Barb. I'm expecting this to continue moving forward.

• Gators provide economic benefits through the ecotourism industry. Many take swamp hoops tours, in which the Florida Gator's are a featured WINNER!.  (Final: 309th of 314) — Longest name in the pool, and might have won but for a rogue apostrophe that just ruined the vibe.  

• Florida Man Arrested for Driving Cat Into Ocean  (Final: 116th of 314) — The bracket name that feels like a real headline.

• Party Animal Tim Floyd's Expert Picks  (Final: 210th of 314) — There is a story behind this and for better or for worse, I was there for it, so this bracket absolutely had me roaring laughing when I saw it.  Sadly, I need to leave it at that. 👀

• Confucius Say Those Who Beat Around the Bush Have Itchy Basketballs  (Final: 296th of 314) — 296th. The longest path to near-last place in the pool.

And the winner is...

As always, lots of strong contenders, but the best bracket name and $20 bonus goes to My name's not Slick, it's Hoiberg. Fred F*cking Hoiberg!  Part of it is that I'm a big Pulp Fiction fan (my wallet literally says "Bad Mother F*cker," not a joke), part of it is nostalgia for the old Big 8 days when Hoiberg played for Iowa State, but even without those obvious appeals to me personally, I just thought it was funny standing alone.  Congrats to Matthew, and thanks to all that put some effort into coming up with fun names!

I'll be in touch with all of those in the money, regardless of reason, in the next day or so to arrange payout.

Bracket Movers: Risers & Fallers

SoarinOverWDW may have risen to the top and stayed there, but that wasn't the case for everyone that ended up in the money.  Among those who actually ended up on the podium, the late-tournament surge stories are extraordinary:

Chili and Spaghetti overcame a really troubling bracket name (at least to everyone not from CIncinnatti) and climbed 134 places to finish 9th. BilliBarbie jumped 120 to claim 3rd. Alpaca Party rode 103 spots up the leaderboard to land 5th. These brackets had no business being in the money conversation after Round 1. March Madness is gonna do its thing, I guess.

And while they didn't end up on the money, They Do Not Have A Mascot! deserves a special callout: starting at #238 and finishing at #24 is a gain of 214 places. That bracket went from the bracket equivalent of checking in at the wrong hotel to headlining the conference. Remarkable. Inexplicable. Deeply unfair to everyone who made sensible picks.  Here are a few other noteworthy risers:

Biggest Fallers

And then there are these people. They were near the top. They felt good. They proudly carried their bracket printouts around that first weekenf and told anyone who would listen about how much ass they were kicking. Then March did its thing.

March Radness lost 199 places. That is, umm, not great. Starting at #34 and finishing at #233 suggests something truly spectacular went wrong in the later rounds. MacDaddy didn't fall as far, but fell from higher -- he was 8th after Round 1 — top 10, looking sharp — and finished 187th. For context, that puts MacDaddy behind 179 people who were worse than them after the first weekend. Incredible collapse.

The Celebrity Corner

Every year, we send our novelty brackets out into the tournament to see what fate befalls them. This year's class delivered some genuine surprises — and at least one spectacular implosion.

Jay Bilas is the story here. ESPN's king of college basketball analysis — the man who makes his living evaluating talent, scouting prospects, and predicting outcomes — started the tournament ranked #185 out of 314 brackets. He then climbed 163 places to finish 22nd. Jay Bilas, professional basketball expert, was terrible for 48 hours and then figured it out.

Joe Lunardi is ESPN's official Bracketologist. He spends the entire college basketball season predicting which teams will make the tournament, what their seeds will be, and how the bracket will be constructed. He is, in theory, the most qualified person on earth to fill out an NCAA Tournament bracket. He finished #179 out of 314. Bottom 43% of the field. Worse than Yung Gravy. Worse than the coin. Worse than a cat. My takeaway is that knowing which teams make the tournament and knowing who wins once they get there are, apparently, completely unrelated skills.

Let's not forget about Air Bud, a golden retriever who, in a 1997 film, played basketball. I don't recall seeing Bud watch any college baskeetball in the movie, though, and it shows, with Bud finishing in 301st place. 301st place is still better than some humans in this pool managed, and we think Air Bud deserves credit for that. Also, he's a very good boy. He just shouldn't be picking brackets.

Speaking of dogs, there's Snoop Dogg. The Dogg started at a respectable #82 and ended at #249. That's a drop of 167 places. Drop [down the leaderboard] like it's hot?  Something like that, I guess...

And our old buddy the COIN FLIP — a bracket decided purely by luck and the ultimate measure of futilty — finished at #138 out of 314, gaining 111 places from Round  1. It finished ahead of Stephen A. Smith (#165), Mascot Bracket (#227), and Snoop Dogg (#249), and beat more than you that actually thought about your brackets.  Better luck next year, folks!