With the dust settled on the 2025 NCAA Men’s Tournament, it’s time to move from buzzer-beaters to bracket-busters. From musicians to media moguls, celebs across the spectrum gave us their best shot at predicting the madness. Some impressed — others? Let’s just say they’ll stick to their day jobs.
We ranked ten high-profile brackets by round-by-round accuracy to see who came closest to basketball bracket brilliance. Here’s how the celebs stacked up.
| Rank | Celebrity | First Round | Second Round | Sweet 16 | Elite Eight | Final Four | National Championship | Champion | Overall |
| 1 | Nickelback | 78% | 75% | 63% | 75% | 75% | 100% | 100% | 81.00% |
| 2 | Stephen A. Smith | 78% | 69% | 63% | 75% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 80.95% |
| 3 | Jamal Crawford | 91% | 69% | 88% | 75% | 75% | 50% | 0% | 78.00% |
| 4 | Seth Davis | 72% | 63% | 88% | 75% | 75% | 50% | 100% | 75.00% |
| 5 | Jimmy Fallon | 66% | 56% | 50% | 50% | 50% | 0% | 0% | 60.30% |
| 6 | President Obama | 84% | 88% | 75% | 75% | 50% | 50% | 0% | 60.00% |
| 7 | Michael Harris | 69% | 69% | 75% | 50% | 50% | 0% | 0% | 59.00% |
| 8 | Bijan Robinson | 63% | 38% | 38% | 75% | 50% | 50% | 100% | 59.00% |
| 9 | Bert Kreischer | 75% | 75% | 13% | 50% | 50% | 0% | 0% | 52.00% |
| 10 | Rip Hamilton | 63% | 50% | 63% | 25% | 25% | 0% | 0% | 46.00% |
Round 1: Opening Shots Fired
Best Performance: Jamal Crawford (91%)
Also Solid: Stephen A. Smith, Nickelback (78%)
Needs Work: Rip Hamilton, Bijan Robinson (63%)
From the jump, it was Jamal Crawford lighting it up with a near-perfect first round. Smith and Nickelback followed closely, showing sharp eyes for early matchups. Bert Kreischer, despite finishing near the bottom overall, put up a respectable 75% here — proving that even longshots can have hot starts.
Round 2: Where Brackets Start to Break
Best Performance: President Obama (88%)
Respectable Showings: Nickelback, Bert Kreischer (75%)
Struggles: Bijan Robinson (38%)
Things got tricky fast in the Round of 32. Even top names stumbled, but Obama surged with an 88% accuracy clip. Nickelback continued their consistent run, while Bijan’s bracket took a nosedive.
Sweet 16: Clarity or Chaos?
Best Performance: Jamal Crawford, Seth Davis (88%)
Holding Strong: President Obama, Michael Harris (75%)
Trouble Brewing: Bert Kreischer (13%)
The Sweet 16 separated the contenders from the pretenders. Crawford and Davis read the court well here. But this was the round where Kreischer’s bracket all but collapsed, hitting just 13%.
Elite Eight: Pressure Mounts
Top Marks: Several (75%) – Nickelback, Smith, Crawford, Davis, Obama
Faltering: Rip Hamilton (25%)
Consistency was key in the Elite Eight, with six celebs posting a solid 75% success rate. Unfortunately, Hamilton’s picks fell apart at this stage — a theme that continued to the finish line.
Final Four: Stars Shine Bright
Perfect Picks: Stephen A. Smith (100%)
Still Solid: Nickelback, Crawford, Davis, Fallon (50%)
Whiffs: Hamilton, Kreischer, Harris (25% or lower)
Smith was the only one to nail all Final Four teams, correctly predicting Auburn, Duke, Houston, and Florida. That foresight made all the difference later on.
National Championship: The Matchup Matters
Correct Pair: Nickelback & Smith (100%)
Still in the Mix: Seth Davis, Obama (50%)
Missed Entirely: Fallon, Kreischer, Harris, Hamilton (0%)
Picking the right final matchup gave Smith and Nickelback the edge.
Champion: Who Called Florida?
Right on the Money: Nickelback, Smith, Davis, Robinson (100%)
Came Close: Obama (0%, picked Duke)
Totally Off: The rest
Four celebrities had Florida as their national champ — and that made all the difference in final scores.
The Final Leaderboard
Here’s the full celebrity bracket accuracy leaderboard, ranked by total success across all rounds:
| Rank | Celebrity | Overall Accuracy |
| 🥇 1 | Nickelback | 81.00% |
| 🥈 2 | Stephen A. Smith | 80.95% |
| 🥉 3 | Jamal Crawford | 78.00% |
| 4 | Seth Davis | 75.00% |
| 5 | Jimmy Fallon | 60.30% |
| 6 | President Obama | 60.00% |
| 7 | Michael Harris | 59.00% |
| 8 | Bijan Robinson | 59.00% |
| 9 | Bert Kreischer | 52.00% |
| 10 | Rip Hamilton | 46.00% |
Methodology
We tracked and scored every pick across all major rounds: First Round, Second Round, Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, National Championship Matchup, and the Champion pick. Percentages reflect pick-by-pick accuracy.
We analyzed every celebrity bracket against the actual results.
Want more like this? Be sure to check out some of the Best Sportsbooks & Online Betting Sites and even these BetMGM Bonus Code pages — and next March, maybe let Nickelback fill out your bracket.
