Who will win March Madness? Our Final Four picks as 2025 NCAA Tournament opens

[ASFN Admin]

The time to fill out March Madness brackets has come to an end.

The first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament begins today and continues Friday with 16 games each day at eight arenas across the country, including Cleveland's Rocket Arena.

Here's who our team of writers covering the games in Cleveland this weekend think will survive the early rounds, get through next week's regional play and reach the Final Four, April 5 and 7, in San Antonio. And to reflect the somewhat open feel of this tournament, our four writers picks four different national champs.

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March Madness Final Four, national champion predictions from Michael Beaven​

• Final Four: Michigan State, Florida, Duke, Tennessee
• National champion: Florida
• Why Florida? Don't expect any team to roll through the tournament like Connecticut did last season to win its second national championship in a row. It was tempting to pick Johni Broome and Auburn this year, but I have them losing to Michigan State. Give me Florida and Duke in the national final. Duke's Cooper Flagg is fun to watch, but my pick to win the national championship is SEC Tournament champion Florida. Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard have the Gators playing at an elite level.

March Madness Final Four, national champion predictions from Brad Bournival​

• Final Four: Auburn, Florida, Alabama, Houston
• National champion: Auburn
• Why Auburn? In a season where things are wide open, I’ll stay close to the vest on this one and say the madness of March will roar more like a kitten. No one has more quality wins than the Tigers. While Auburn sputtered down the stretch, the Tigers are senior-laden and can fill it from the 3-point arc. Add national player of the year candidate Johni Broome and Auburn is going to be a tough out.

March Madness Final Four, national champion predictions from Chris Easterling​

• Final Four: Michigan State, Florida, Alabama, Houston
• National champion: Houston
• Why Houston? Florida is an exceptional basketball team. Depth, shooting, rebounding, length, defense, just about everything you'd want. However, Houston can do a lot of those same things, even if it's not quite as deep as the Gators. As much as Florida is seemingly everyone's pick to win it all, there's something about the Cougars that makes them my pick to win.

March Madness Final Four, national champion predictions from Mike Popovich​

• Final Four: Michigan State, Florida, Duke, Tennessee
• National champion: Duke
• Why Duke? As much as it pains the North Carolina fan in me to say it, this just feels like Duke's year. Cooper Flagg is the best player in the college game, and Kon Knueppel is pretty good, too. If Flagg shows no ill-effect from his late-season ankle injury, I expect the Blue Devils to cut down the nets in San Antonio.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Final Four picks, March Madness predictions for NCAA bracket

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