NCAAB

FanDuel Bracket Pick'em: numberFire Staff Picks

Abe Schwadron  —  @abe_squad Mar 12th, 2018
Now that the 2018 NCAA Tournament bracket has been released, which teams are our experts targeting in FanDuel's brand new Bracket Pick'em game?

March Madness is here. And the most interesting new way to get in on the action is FanDuel's new Bracket Pick'em contest. It's a seemingly simple free-to-play game, but there is some serious strategy involved.

All you have to do is pick five teams whose seeds add up to at least 20, and the deeper into the NCAA Tournament they go, the more points you'll rack up. For a more detailed breakdown of how to play Bracket Pick'em, check out our full introduction to the game here.

We've already run the numbers on the optimal five-team entry and pointed out five value teams to target in this year's field. But what does the numberFire staff see happening in this year's tournament? We polled our college basketball experts for their Bracket Pick'em picks, and the results are below.

Looking for trends? 11 of the 13 staffers polled picked Villanova, the top seed in the East Region, and 10 of the 13 staffers polled picked Gonzaga, the 4 seed in the West Region. Only three pick combinations included more than one team with a seed of 5 or higher (as in, worse).

Scroll down to see our full staff picks for the 2018 FanDuel Bracket Pick'em.

Want to get a huge leg up on your March Madness pool? Subscribe to numberFire and get instant access to power rankings, bracket picks, game simulators, and tons of awesome expert advice to help you make the right decision.

Even better, we're offering our subscriptions at $19 over the first month when you use the promo code BRACKET.

Find Out More

JJ Zachariason, Editor-in-Chief

Picks:

(1) Villanova
(2) Duke
(4) Gonzaga
(5) Kentucky
(8) Seton Hall

Brandon Gdula, Senior Writer & Analyst

Picks:

(1) Villanova
(2) Cincinnati
(4) Gonzaga
(6) Houston
(10) Butler

Jim Sannes, Senior Writer & Analyst

Picks:

(1) Villanova
(2) Duke
(4) Gonzaga
(6) Houston
(11) Syracuse/Arizona State

Abe Schwadron, Managing Editor

Picks:

(1) Villanova
(2) North Carolina
(4) Arizona
(4) Gonzaga
(10) Oklahoma

Keith Goldner, Chief Analyst

Picks:

(1) Villanova
(2) Duke
(2) Cincinnati
(5) Ohio State
(10) Butler

Austan Kas, Contributing Editor

Picks:

(1) Villanova
(2) Purdue
(2) Duke
(4) Gonzaga
(11) Loyola-Chicago

Sam Hauss, Projections Analyst

Picks:

(1) Virginia
(2) Duke
(3) Tennessee
(4) Gonzaga
(10) Butler

Brett Oswalt, Contributor

Picks:

(1) Kansas
(1) Villanova
(3) Michigan State
(4) Arizona
(13) Marshall

Jesse Scudilla, Contributor

Picks:

(1) Villanova
(1) Kansas
(3) Michigan State
(4) Gonzaga
(11) Loyola-Chicago

Akash Bhatia, Contributor

Picks:

(1) Virginia
(2) Duke
(3) Texas Tech
(4) Gonzaga
(12) New Mexico State

Kyle Scudilla, Contributor

Picks:

(1) Virginia
(1) Villanova
(2) Duke
(4) Gonzaga
(12) New Mexico State

Dale Redman, Contributor

Picks:

(1) Villanova
(2) North Carolina
(3) Michigan State
(4) Arizona
(11) Loyola-Chicago

Ian Goldsmith, Contributor

Picks:

(1) Virginia
(1) Villanova
(3) Texas Tech
(4) Gonzaga
(12) New Mexico State

Those listed as "contributors" are not FanDuel employees. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Brett Oswalt, Kyle Scudilla, Akash Bhatia, Ian Goldsmith and Austan Kas also participate in DFS contests on FanDuel using their personal accounts, usernames BRO14THEKID, yankfan98k, tenswimrun1, zoidbergs_revenge and akas247. While the strategies and player selections recommended in this article are their personal views, they may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with their personal accounts.