Pony Stampede: An SMU Athletics podcast · 247Sports, SMU, SMU Mustangs, SMU football, College Football

Jon Rothstein reacts to & picks every game in 2026 NCAA Tournament Bracket!

·36 min·2 clips

Rothstein picks Purdue to win the national championship in Indianapolis.

The show opens as a special Selection Sunday edition of Inside College Basketball Now, with Rothstein reminding listeners to subscribe on Apple and Spotify, watch on CBS Sports Network each Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern for the rest of the 25-26 season, and follow on YouTube. During the NCAA tournament, he says the later-week episodes will shift to Wednesdays so the show can air before the Thursday-Friday games and ahead of the Sweet 16 and Final Four. From there, he turns to the bracket itself. The conversation stays grounded in the regions instead of chasing a big theory. He says the bottom part of the bracket has the most pressure. North Carolina has to respond without Caleb Wilson. Illinois looks like a team with a workable path to the Sweet 16. Houston is expected to handle its first two games and set up another Final Four run, with Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games at the Toyota Center in Houston. The top-right region starts with Florida over the 16 seed. Clemson gets the nod over Iowa. Bennett Sturtz is singled out as the most important player to his team, but Rothstein still leans Clemson. Vanderbilt is his pick over McNeese. Nebraska becomes the upset target after Rothstein jokes that he would have thrown Nebraska fans a happy hour in Lincoln if the Huskers had broken through. Troy is the team he thinks can deliver the surprise. He points listeners to Thomas Dowd as the name to know. Troy is the pick over Nebraska. Vanderbilt then beats Troy, which sets up a Florida-Vanderbilt Sweet 16 rematch of the SEC tournament semifinal. He closes by reminding listeners that 68 teams are left and 67 games remain.

As heard by us

A practical Selection Sunday bracket breakdown with concrete picks and pressure points.

John Rothstein treats Selection Sunday like a regional map, moving bracket by bracket and settling on specific picks instead of leaning on broad talk.

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Want a fast bracket read before the first tip and all the noise?

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