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Who will win March Madness? Survivor 47 runner-up Sam Phalen shares his pick

Sam Phalen also picked some big upsets in his 2025 March Madness bracket.
ByBryce Olin|
“Loyal to the Soil” – In a SURVIVOR first, castaways attempt a shocking negotiation for rice. Then, teams must have their head in the game during a tough reward challenge, on SURVIVOR, Wednesday, Nov. 20 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs)*. Jeff Probst serves as host and executive producer. Pictured (L-R):
“Loyal to the Soil” – In a SURVIVOR first, castaways attempt a shocking negotiation for rice. Then, teams must have their head in the game during a tough reward challenge, on SURVIVOR, Wednesday, Nov. 20 (8:00-9:30 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs)*. Jeff Probst serves as host and executive producer. Pictured (L-R): | CBS

For the next three or four weeks, CBS, the home of Survivor, will be dominated by coverage of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. And, a Survivor player who knows a thing or two about sports is teaming up with CBS to share his 2025 March Madness bracket. Of course, I'm talking about Survivor 47 runner-up and sports reporter, Sam Phalen.

Sam shared his bracket via the CBS and Survivor Instagram, and he also provided some commentary and a few insights about his picks. Hopefully, this will help some of the Survivor fans fill out their NCAA Tournament brackets before the games get started on Thursday, March 20. Technically, the First Four games already started, but you should be able to fill out a bracket up until the first games begin around noon ET on Thursday, March 20.

Sam Phalen picks the Houston Cougars to win March Madness

For Sam's picks, he picks the Michigan State Spartans, St. John's Red Storm, Duke Blue Devils, and the Houston Cougars to make the Final Four. He also picks St. John's and Houston to meet in the NCAA Championship game with Houston ultimately prevailing as the 2025 NCAA Champions. They'll have to get by my Gonzaga Bulldogs first, though.

Duke is one of the heavy favorites to advance to the Final Four, but most analysts are picking the Florida Gators over St. John's, and there are a lot people taking the Auburn Tigers in their respective region of the bracket.

Sam also picked out a few upsets to watch for in the NCAA tournament, including his alma mater, the Lipscomb Bisons against the Iowa State Cyclones, the Drake Bulldogs over the Missouri Tigers, and the VCU Rams over the BYU Cougars.

Luckily, most of the NCAA Tournament games will take place Thursday-Sunday for the next two weeks. The Final Four games will be on Saturday with the Championship to follow on April 7. That's good news because it means Survivor 48, which airs on Wednesday nights won't be delayed or moved to accomodate the NCAA Tournament games.

So, there you have it. Sam has the Houston Cougars to win the NCAA Tournament this year! We'll have to wait and see how things turn out for the Survivor 47 runner-up. And, we'll have to see if Sam is one of the players in the running to play Survivor 50.

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