Bruce Pearl, CBS Sports bracket reveal panel make Final Four picks

Following another controversial Selection Sunday, the 2026 NCAA Tournament’s 68-team field is officially set. Now, millions of March Madness fans and college basketball pundits alike will spend the next several days filling out their personal brackets before opening round action tips off Thursday.

Of course, a few of those pundits got an early start on their picks — at least when it comes to their Final Four projections. That includes former Auburn head coach-turned-CBS analyst Bruce Pearl.

A year after guiding the Tigers to the program’s second-ever Final Four last season, Pearl revealed which teams he projects will follow in his footsteps and make the NCAA Tournament’s final weekend this season and which team will ultimately be the one to cut down the nets in Indianapolis.

Pearl’s 2026 Final Four includes three No. 1 overall seeds and one big surprise — fifth-seeded St. John’s, which Pearl has knocking out top-overall seeded Duke in the Sweet 16 to make it out of the East bracket. Pearl also projects the other three top seeds — Arizona, Florida and Michigan — will win the West, South and Midwest brackets, respectively, before the Wildcats dispatch the defending national champion Gators to claim the 2026 NCAA Tournament final.

“I like Rick Pitino and St. John’s, the way these guys are guarding and shooting, … my former assistant, Todd Golden, with the Florida Gators, Arizona and Michigan,” Pearl said Sunday afternoon to close CBS’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Selection Show. “I like Arizona. I’ve seen them live, they’re big, strong, fast, they play great defense. They’re the most tested team I think in this tournament.”

Fellow CBS analyst Clark Kellogg also came through with a bit of a surprise when he projected No. 2-seeded Purdue, which won the Big Ten Tournament championship on Sunday, to not only win the West bracket but the entire tournament by also taking down the Gators in the national final. Kellogg also expects third-seeded Virginia to beat the top-seeded Wolverines in the Elite Eight and advance to Indianapolis out of the Midwest, while No. 1s Duke and Florida win the East and South, respectively.

Meanwhile, CBS’s Seth Davis went mostly all chalk except for his pick of No. 2-seeded Houston beating the Gators in the Elite Eight to make the Final Four alongside Arizona (West), Duke (East) and Michigan (Midwest). But much like Pearl, Davis projects the Wildcats to ultimately come out on top with a victory over the No. 1 overall seeded Blue Devils in the national championship game.

Check out all three CBS analysts’ Final Four and championship picks below:

Bruce Pearl’s Final Four picks

East: St. John’s
West: Arizona
South: Florida
Midwest: Michigan
Final: Arizona over Florida

Clark Kellogg’s Final Four picks

East: Duke
West: Purdue
South: Florida
Midwest: Virginia
Final: Purdue over Florida

Seth Davis’s Final Four picks

East: Duke
West: Arizona
South: Houston
Midwest: Michigan
Final: Arizona over Duke