SMDR Tournament Challenge is now open

With March Madness just around the corner, it is time to put your bracket skills to the test.

The San Marcos Daily Record is hosting the SMDR Tournament Challenge to see who can pick the best bracket with the prize being ultimate bragging rights.

This year there will be two brackets to pick with the NCAA Men’s Tournament and the NCAA Women’s Tournament.

The rules are simple. Out of the 64 teams playing in the tournament, your job is to pick all of the games to see if you can get the closest from picking the correct bracket.

However, participants can only fill out one bracket.

According to the NCAA website, the odds of picking a perfect bracket are one in 120.2 billion.

Going into the Men’s Tournament, this year’s favorites to win the title this year are Connecticut, Houston, Purdue and Arizona.

Two of the most popular picks to win the national championship, according to ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, are UConn and Houston with the Huskies being the most picked at 24.8% and the Cougars at 13.4%.

The Lone Star State will see six teams compete for a national championship with the aforementioned Houston Cougars, Baylor Bears, Texas Longhorns, Texas Christian Horned Frogs and Texas Tech Red Raiders from the Big 12 Conference and the Texas A&M Aggies from the Southeastern Conference.

From the Sun Belt Conference, James Madison will look to make a run as the 12-seed.

In the Women’s Tournament, Iowa and South Carolina are the favorites to win the national championships.

South Carolina is the favorite by pickers with 36.6% choosing the Gamecocks to win the championship followed by Iowa with 30.8%.

Teams from Texas looking to claim the national championship are the Longhorns and Aggies as well as Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Rice.

The Longhorns appear to have the best chance at winning the national after claiming the number one seed in the region.

Marshall will represent the Sun Belt Conference as the 13-seed and will play Virginia Tech.

The deadline for the bracket challenge is Thursday at 12:15 p.m. for the Men’s and Friday at 11:30 a.m. for the Women’s.

May the odds be in your favor.

cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc