2025 NCAA Tournament Survivor Pool Advice: Round 1 (Thursday)

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So you thought survivor pools only applied to the NFL season? On the contrary, survivor contests are widely popular for the NCAA tournament. They offer an alternative way for those whose brackets habitually get busted early to stay involved in the action.

Much like the NFL version, NCAA tournament survivor pools require you to pick one team each round. Once you select a team, you can’t use them again. However, the similarities end there, as the NCAA version’s strategies differ vastly.

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2025 March Madness Survivor Pool Advice: Round 1 (Thursday)

One needs to remember you could lose your entry without ever making a losing pick but instead run out of teams from which to choose. All teams in NFL survivor pools are available for selection except the ones already chosen. In NCAA tournament survivor pools, as teams get eliminated, the collection of teams shrinks. Thus, if you make it to the National Championship unscathed, but the two teams are Gonzaga and Arizona, you are out if you have already used both. That is just one example of a different thinking process for navigating these tricky contests.

Throughout the tournament, you have to make eight picks - two for the first round (one for each day played), two for the second round (one for each day played) and one for the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final Four and National Championship.

We will provide our analysis broken down by the following categories for each round: Best Picks, Favorites on Upset Alert, and Teams That Should Be Saved for Later.

Here is a list of odds (via DraftKings Sportsbook) for all the favorites to win their first-round matchups on Thursday:

(odds courtesy of DraftKings Sportsbook)

Best Picks

This has not been a stereotypical Wisconsin team all season, as the Badgers averaged nearly 80 points per game. Wisconsin also is deadly from the free throw line, as its 82.8% team free throw rate is the second-best in Division I (DI) history.

While Montana’s 50.2% field goal percentage was the second-best in DI this year, the Grizzlies do not have the capabilities on defense (250th in adjusted defensive efficiency, 290th in turnover rate forced) to upset the Badgers. I also like using Wisconsin to feel safe and advance past the first day of the tournament in survivor pools, as its ceiling is likely a Sweet 16 berth where I have them losing to Alabama.

We are advising another Big Ten team in Purdue as our second survivor pick, even though some have the Boilermakers on upset alert. High Point was the best team in terms of offensive and defensive efficiency out of the Big South, but this being its first-ever NCAA Tournament game gives me pause about how well it will handle the big stage.

I also do not believe the Panthers are poised to defend the two-headed monster that is Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn, as High Point does not have the answers for Purdue’s pick-and-roll attack. Since 2018, No. 13 seeds have won seven of the 24 No. 4 vs. No. 13 matchups. I do not envision an upset here, however.

Favorites on Upset Alert

Teams That Should Be Saved for Later

Houston, Auburn, Tennessee, St. John’s and Texas Tech are all Elite 8 contenders, at the very least. So while no team from this list is in danger of a first-round upset, keep them handy for the later rounds when they are still prohibitive favorites while fewer teams are available to choose from.

Mike Spector is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @MikeSpector01.