SportsLine expert Thomas Casale has locked in his Sweet 16 bracket predictions for March Madness 2026
By Ross Kelly Mar 25, 2026 at 8:36 am ET • 2 min read 
Imagn Images It's been 26 years since a Big Ten team last won a national championship. That could change as six Big Ten schools have reached the 2026 March Madness Sweet 16 bracket. The Big Ten entered the NCAA Tournament 2026 with nine schools and still has Michigan, Purdue, Michigan State, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa standing. The league has done a number on the competition, going 13-3 through the first two rounds of the tournament.
At least one of those schools is guaranteed to reach the Elite 8 as Iowa faces Nebraska in a South Region matchup on Thursday. The ninth-seeded Hawkeyes and fourth-seeded Cornhuskers split a pair of regular-season games this year, each team winning on their home court. Now they face off at a neutral site. Who should you back with your March Madness predictions? Before locking in any NCAA Tournament picks or filling out your March Madness bracket 2026, be sure to see the 2026 Sweet 16 picks from top expert Thomas Casale.
Casale, a veteran college basketball expert with decades of experience, joined SportsLine in early 2024 and went on an 89-53 roll on his college basketball picks. More recently, he's 34-25 on his CBB picks entering the Sweet 16.
Now, with the 2026 NCAA bracket updated heading into the Sweet 16, Casale is predicting matchups for the Sweet 16 and the remainder of the NCAA Tournament. You can only see them over at SportsLine.
Top 2026 March Madness Sweet 16 picks
One of the Sweet 16 picks that Casale likes is No. 1 Michigan easily handling No. 4 Alabama on Friday at 7:35 p.m. ET in Chicago. The Wolverines are explosive on offense, but play solid defense as well. Besides averaging 87.4 points per game, ninth-best in the nation, they also have the fourth-best point differential at plus-17.8. Although the Crimson Tide average a nation-high 91.6 points per game, they also give up points - lots of them. Alabama has given up 82.5 points per game, which ranks No. 351 nationally. Against the Wolverines, that spells big trouble.
Michigan has a balanced offensive attack with eight players averaging 7.1 points or more. Senior forward Yaxel Lendeborg leads the Wolverines, averaging 14.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.1 steals in 30.2 minutes. To make matters worse for Alabama, it will be without its second-leading scorer in Aden Holloway (suspension). "This is the game where Alabama will really miss Holloway," Casale told SportsLine. "The Tide will likely need to score 90+ to win and I don't think they have the horses without Holloway. Michigan tops 100 and pulls away for an easy win." You can see the rest of Casale's 2026 NCAA bracket picks here.
How to make 2026 NCAA bracket predictions
Casale has also made his picks for the rest of the NCAA Tournament, including who advances to the Final Four and cuts down the nets. He is backing a major upset as he has a No. 1 seed failing to win its region and advance to the Final Four, so you'll want to see which upset he's predicting before locking in any 2026 NCAA bracket picks.
Who is Casale backing in the Sweet 16, and No. 1 seed fails to survive this weekend? Visit SportsLine now to see which teams you can back with confidence, all from the expert who went 89-53 (+2968) on college basketball picks.
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