Average score of March Madness final: Tips for winning bracket pool tiebreaker

Craig Meyer, USA TODAY NETWORKMon, March 16, 2026 at 9:15 PM UTC

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Let’s be honest: you know why you’re here.

Every year, in the days leading up to the start of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, millions of people across the country with wildly varying levels of ball knowledge fill out brackets to try to determine who will make the Final Four and be crowned the national champion.

Oftentimes, there’s a tiebreaker for those bracket competitions: Seeing who comes the closest to picking the combined number of points scored in the national championship game.

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While you could always just guess — which is mostly what filling a bracket’s all about, right? — why not make a potential March Madness bracket-winning prediction with a little more knowledge?

Here’s a closer look at the average score of national championship games:

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Average score of March Madness final

Since 2016, the average combined point total from NCAA men’s basketball championship games is 142.4 points.

That time marker is a notable one. Ahead of the 2015-16 season, the NCAA cut the shot clock down from 35 seconds to 30, a rule that’s still in place today. So while championship games before that could provide some helpful guidance, it’s most useful to work only with title games that have come under the same time constraints as today, with more possessions and a generally faster pace of play.

During that nine-season stretch, the highest-scoring championship game came in 2019, when Virginia and Texas Tech combined for 162 points in the Cavaliers’ 85-77 victory, though that game went into overtime. Since 2009, it’s the only title game that has required overtime. The lowest-scoring game of the bunch came last year, when Florida and Houston had 128 combined points in the Gators’ narrow 65-63 win.

Interestingly, two of the past three championship games have had a combined 135 points exactly, though in what’s likely just a coincidence, both of the games in question involved UConn. If you’re looking for a sweet spot for point totals, it might be this: five of the past nine championship games have had between 135 and 141 combined points.

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March Madness championship scores

Here’s a look back at the past nine NCAA tournament championship game final scores, as well as the combined point total:

2025: Florida 65, Houston 63 (128 combined points)

2024: UConn 75, Purdue 60 (135)

2023: UConn 76, San Diego State 59 (135)

2022: Kansas 72, North Carolina 69 (141)

2021: Baylor 86, Gonzaga 70 (156)

2020: Canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic

2019: Virginia 85, Texas Tech 77 (OT) (162)

2018: Villanova 79, Michigan 62 (141)

2017: North Carolina 71, Gonzaga 65 (136)

2016: Villanova 77, North Carolina 74 (151)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What's the average score of the March Madness final?

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