
Jon Rothstein reacts to & picks every game in 2026 NCAA Tournament Bracket!
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The Early Edge: A Daily Sports Betting Podcast — Jon Rothstein reacts to & picks every game in 2026 NCAA Tournament Bracket!. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
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Inside College basketball now a special selection Sunday edition of the only college basketball podcast coming to you 52 weeks out of the calendar year. One reminder subscribe to inside college basketball now on both Apple and Spotify. We want to be your Bible for the college basketball season and beyond. We are the only college basketball podcast coming to you 52 weeks out of the calendar year. Also want to remind you that inside college basketball now becoming to you each and every Monday on CBS sports network at one o'clock Eastern for the remainder of the 25 26 college basketball season. We are doing something different from a programming perspective during the NCAA tournament. The shows now that happen in the latter part of the week are going to run on Wednesdays so we can hit you with an episode obviously before the games this week on Thursday Friday and also then in the sweet 16 on Thursday Friday. So those will be happening on Wednesday the next couple of weeks and obviously also before the final four. Also want to remind you to like and subscribe to inside
college basketball now on YouTube. We need an army with us for each and every show here on inside college basketball now and we need you to be all you can be in an addition to the like and subscribe button. Also hit the hype button to create the necessary palpable buzz that is needed to get things rolling at the highest of levels to make the show what we hope it will become. But this is obviously a different type of show. This is a show where there are no scripts needed. This is a show where we can get into the guts of the greatest day of the year of the college basketball calendar. It is a day that no other sport has. It is our day. It is selection Sunday. And there are sometimes I get the reaction to the bracket and you feel volatile. You feel opinionated. You feel like there are things that happen that you just can't fathom. Tonight is not one of those nights. The 68 teams that I had projected to be in the NCAA tournament on Sunday morning are the same 68 teams that wound up in
the NCAA tournament on Sunday night at six o'clock. And I think the committee did an outstanding job putting the bracket together in terms of rewarding the 68 best teams that deserve to be in the field. Now I will say this. There was a couple of things from a seating perspective. I was a little surprised that I was shocked that St. Louis got a nine seed after finishing the regular season eight and eight. I was also a little surprised that St. John's did not work its way to the four line. We'll get into all that and more in time here. But I am obviously really overall very pleased with the way the bracket came out for the 2026 NCAA tournament. I know some people felt that Vanderbilt should have been better than five. We are splitting atoms at that point. You are completely splitting atoms. I think the committee did an outstanding job putting this bracket together. I think now we have an NCAA tournament that has all sorts of storylines. And I also want to be in a situation where I am connecting
with you. And I want you to leave a comment in the chat. I want to hear from you about your thoughts on the draw for the NCAA tournament, the bracket for the NCAA tournament. I am going to get to all that later in the show here on inside college basketball now. But first of course, I have to go through the bracket and give you my picks and breakdown for the greatest event that there is in sports. Now before we dive in to the scenario where I get into the bracket names and if you guys are seeing somebody behind me, that's Brent Stover. He is not on Twitter. But I am using his dressing room for this show tonight because you know, it's nice to have reciprocation in a friendship once in a while. This is the one night of year that Brent's going to come through and let me use his dressing room. Get a little chuckle out of him there. But I am going to go through the regions. If you're looking at your bracket right now from left down to right throughout this show. And I'm going to start with the region names, the East region in the top left portion of your bracket. I have named the region of
Bluebloods because of the brand name programs that you have in this region. Duke, Ohio State, Rick Patino and St. John's Kansas with Bill Self, Louisville, Michigan State UCLA and UConn. And I was going over the dynamics right now about the brands in this region. Think about this. John Shire, Rick Patino, Bill Self, Thomas O. Micronin, Dan Hurley, six of the 16 coaches that are in the East region have all advanced to the final four. And four of those coaches, Rick Patino, Bill Self, Thomas O. Dan Hurley have won a national championship, hence the region of Bluebloods. So we will go to the top portion right now of this region. And I am going to give you how I think things are going to shake out. Duke against Sienna in the round of 64. Duke against Jerry Macdemara, taking Sienna to the NCAA tournament for the first time since his arrival, first appearance for
the Saints since 2010. Duke against Macdemara, obviously I got the Blue Devils moving on there. Ohio State, TCU, everybody seems now to be going for TCU, excuse me, going for Ohio State in this game. I'm a big TCU guy. I believe in TCU in this game. I don't think people have truly, truly been in the situation where they have watched TCU as much as the college basketball junkie. Jamie Dixon a couple of years ago, scared Arizona to depth to death in 2022, and would have went to the sweet 16. If obviously Ben Matherin did not make that three from just behind the three point line in San Diego in that game in 2022, I like TCU to beat Ohio State names to watch right now for the basketball fan to be in a situation to monitor TCU. You have obviously a guy David Ponshu is a burgeoning star. Malik Edmonds is another, excuse me, Xavier Edmonds is another guy to really
keep an eye on. Edmonds is a player that again has stepped into an expanded role at TCU lost the starting center. Malik Edmonds and our guys who I think could become household names by next weekend. Both have gotten better and better and better as the season have gone along. So Xavier Edmonds and David Ponshu obviously two guys who want to monitor also like the steadiness of their guards with Brock Harding and Jaden Pierre. St. John's Northern Iowa I'm taking St. John's Kansas Cal Baptist I'm going to take Kansas so we got the five four match up there with the seeds holding. Then you go to the bottom portion of your bracket. Louisville South Florida we still do not have an official word on Michael Brown status for the round of 64 I'm taking the Cardinals and I'm obviously going to take Michigan State over North Dakota State. UCLA UCF now UCLA had a major win the other night in the big 10 tournament against Michigan State Tyler Bilodo missed about the final 25 minutes of that game. Texting with McCrone from the last
couple of days he's obviously 100% in expects Bilodo to be ready for Friday in Philadelphia. He obviously also expects down of indent to be ready to play. So I've got UCLA beating UCF. I have Yukon beating Ferman but here's one thing we got to keep in mind and this is just the fact of life. UCLA has been the one big 10 team that's been able to survive outside of the Pacific time zone but the Bruins have not been great coming east the last couple of years. UCLA just flew this morning which were taping this on Sunday. UCLA flew from Chicago to Los Angeles and then is going to have to fly from LA to Philadelphia. This is very similar to what happened last year after the big 10 tournament. UCLA flew back to Southern California and then had to fly to Lexington to play Utah State and then play Tennessee. So UCLA is going to be again on eastern standard time but if you don't want to obviously deal with that then you got to win more games and you got a better seed. Going to the top portion right now of your bracket. I think a lot of people
are overlooking the potential of TCU pushing Duke. I think TCU is a very very difficult game for Duke in the round of 32. I'm a huge fan of Jamie Dixon's team. I will have Duke advancing but I think that game could be tricky for the Blue Devils and I am going to take St. John's to beat Kansas. Keep in mind right here in terms of nuggets go. Bill Self and Rick Patino. Two of the only three coaches right now that are active that have won multiple national championships. This is the first time that Bill Self and Rick Patino have coached head to head as power conference head coaches. They have only played one time, one time together against each other. It was when Kansas played Iona a couple of years ago when Rick Patino was the head coach at Iona in an early season tournament in Orlando and Stover again getting everything hung up. We got another big show Monday but Kuno is the Brent Stover. He just said Brent Stover just said we sleep in March. We do indeed sleep in March. All right. Kudos to you for your great job on
the bridge show on CBS. We're all big fans over here. He's not on Twitter. So St. John's and Kansas an interesting game. I'm going to go with Rick Patino in this game. Kansas has been too mercurial. And then the bottom part I'm taking Michigan State over Louisville. UCLA and Yukon is an interesting game. UCLA's played great basketball or better basketball the last couple of weeks. But UCLA is a key place. And in the middle I think terrorists read is in position to have a field day against UCLA's front line. The game's also going to be an pro Yukon crowd. I'm going to take Yukon to win that game. And then I'm going to take in this region the two big East teams. I'm going to take St. John's to bust up this region over Duke. And I'm going to take Yukon to beat Michigan State dudes. These two teams actually played in a charity exhibition game early in the season. And that sets up something that to me is something we've talked about
for or I've talked about for months right now. When we were doing content and we were making shows last summer. I got into detail about how the burgeoning rivalry in college basketball with St. John's and Yukon. You had Rick Patino, you had Dan Hurley, you had Dan Hurley, you had Rick Patino. If we see phase four in Washington DC, it's going to be much bigger than a big East tournament title game. It's going to be much bigger than a big East regular season title on the line, which it was obviously the last couple of weeks when they were both going head to head for it. It would be for a birth in the final four. And it would be in our nation's capital. That's what I'm picking to happen. And I'm taking the carpenter who is 13 and one in the last three NCAA tournaments to take Yukon to the final four out of the region of Blueblood. So you just have right there my East region break down. I'm going to get to the four final four teams when we go through all the brackets. Now we're in the South region. Bottom left on your bracket.
And the number one seed is the defending national champion Florida Gators. And I have named this region the region of pressure and for good reason. This is the region of pressure because there's major pressure on a lot of the programs in this region. There's pressure on Florida after earning a number one seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history to go back to back because they're good enough to go back to back. There's pressure on Nebraska who has tied the program record for wins on their Fred Hoyberg, my national coach of the year, to win an NCAA tournament game for the first time ever. And if you go to the bottom part of this bracket right now, there's pressure on North Carolina to win a game or two without Caleb Wilson. There's pressure on Illinois who in my opinion has what feels like a nice path to the sweet 16 to get back to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. And there's pressure on Houston who to me should cruise to the sweet 16 to put itself in position to be in position to go to
another final four by winning its first two games and then playing sweet 16 and elite eight games in at the Toyota Center in Houston. So this is the region of pressure. Let me go through my picks down the line just like we did in the top right. We go to the top right now. I'm obviously taking Florida to beat the 16. I like Clemson to beat Iowa. Bennett starts to me is the most important player to his team or as any player in college basketball. But he's like Tom Hanks in Castaway. He's on an island by himself. I'm taking Clemson Vanderbilt over McNeese. I'm going with Vanderbilt before 13 game. I said it. I opened my big fat mouth. I said that if we got into a situation where Nebraska would win an NCAA tournament game for the first time in program history, I would
go to Lincoln, put my credit card down for an hour and I would be in a situation where I would give Nebraska fans an hour to drink and eat on me. I would throw a happy hour for Nebraska fans in Lincoln. That's not happening because I'm taking Troy to pull the upset. You're looking for a name right now to monitor on Troy put in bold print Thomas Dowd the Dennis Rodman of the sun belt had 25 and 19 in a win this year against San Diego State. I am taking Troy to upset Nebraska and Nebraska. Unfortunately for their sake will not be in a situation where it's obviously going to to be Clemson and I'm going to take Vanderbilt to beat Troy. So that means that we have a scenario where then Florida will play Vanderbilt in the sweet 16. That's a rematch of the SEC tournament semi-finals
which Vanderbilt won and I've got Florida beating Vanderbilt and getting to a regional final under Todd golden bottom party bracket. I've got North Carolina beating VCU. I think that'll be a really competitive game. I've got Illinois beating Penn and TJ power who had 44 and 14 on Sunday against Yale in the Ivy League tournament title game. Saint Mary's over A&M give me Randy Bennett and then give me Houston over Idaho big. So I'm going to take Illinois to be Carolina. I'm going to take Saint Mary's two beats. I'm going to take Houston to beat Saint Mary's soft Houston in the Toyota Center. I've got Houston over Illinois and then in the South regional final in a rematch of last year's national championship. A game that will give Houston a major home court advantage and geographic advantage in a revenge game. Almost 365 days later. It's probably 358 days later. I am
going to take Houston to come out of the South region and go to a final four for the third time under Calvin Samson. So there you have it. Those are my picks for the East region which is going to be Yukon, the region of blue bloods, the South region, the region of pressure. It's going to be Houston. So on the left side, I've got Yukon and Houston going to the final four. What are my other two picks? We'll check in with those one in return. John Rothstein here at Inside College Basketball now. Baseball is back and the first pitch is on Netflix. The New York Yankees led by seven time All-Star Aaron Judge head to the San Francisco Bay to take on Rafael Devers San Francisco Giants. This season kicks off with one exclusive opening night game. Watch MLB opening night, the New York Yankees versus the San Francisco Giants live on Netflix. Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern 5 p.m. Pacific. Get in the game with the college branded Venmo debit card.
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At Arkansas BYU has Rob Wright. Miami's got trade Donaldson and Purdue, of course, has Braden Smith. So we're going to go right now with the region of floor generals. We're going to look top right. We're going to start with Arizona, the number one seed in the West region over L.I.U. I am going to take Kevin Willard and Villanova to beat Utah State Wisconsin over high point Arkansas over Hawaii. That is a real, real fascinating matchup in that 5-4. We'll get to that in a second. Give me BYU over Texas. Texas plays NC State in the first four. Give me Gonzaga over Kennesaw and I'm going to take Miami who is playing this game. Okay, in St. Louis against Missouri. I went over the mileage. It is over a thousand miles for Miami to get to the Serena in St. Louis. It is just over a hundred miles for the Tigers to get there. This is going to be a very pro Missouri crowd later in the week in St. Louis,
which is where I am going with Spirodidas and Jim Spanarco. Can we wait for that? And I'm taking Purdue to be Queens. So as we look now at the matchups that we have in the round of 32, I've got Arizona over Villanova. I am going to take also Wisconsin over Arkansas. I think a little bit too much up front for Wisconsin, especially if we can get Nolan Winterback, which we're waiting to hear. Then I'm going to take Gonzaga over BYU and Purdue over Miami. I've got Purdue beating Gonzaga and I'm being Wisconsin. So the boilers were going to go to Arizona, Purdue. Look, it makes so much sense to be all it on Arizona. They've been a wrecking machine. They're going to be playing in San Jose, which is going to be a very, very pro Arizona crowd. But I'm a sentimental person. I'm somebody who loves great plays, great
books, great stories, great storylines. And I firmly believe that Purdue, and I don't want to say Purdue was waiting till the start of the Big Ten tournament to start the season. But this nucleus knew what was at stake in terms of the situation and when things really obviously were going to be put into play at the highest level. And what do I mean by that? When I started in this business, Yukon in 2004 was the number one team, Ben Gordon to lead Brown, Charlie Villanova and Mecca Okafore. That team really didn't turn it on till the Big East tournament that year and start playing like a national champion. The defending national champion, Florida Gators, after Billy Donovan won it in 2006. I know that there were one seed in a 2007 NCAA tournament, but they did not, you know, really get into a situation where they were playing like a team that was going to go back to back until later in the year. I see the same thing in Purdue. Purdue's freshman,
Smith, lawyer, Kaufman, Ren, went through everything in their college careers. It started as freshmen when they won a Big Ten regular season title, a Big Ten tournament title, and then we're at the wrong end of the worst upset in the history of the NCAA tournament against Fairly Dickinson. The sophomore year was the great redemption tour, beating Tennessee to go to the final four, going all the way to the final four, and then losing the Yukon in the national championship game. Last year then they went to the sweet 16 and lost a hard breaker to Purdue. So they're made for all seasons. I'm taking Purdue out of the region of Florida generals and I'm taking Braden Smith to get Purdue to the final four for the second time in three years. Now we go to the bottom right portion, the Midwest region, the region of innovation, because I look at the coaches in this conference, and I look at the way they've adapted to the modern era of college basketball. Dusty May has been as good a roster composition guy as there is
in the sport. St. Louis and Josh Schertz have obviously had a great style of playing the Atlantic Ten. Nate Oates in Alabama, obviously, you know, a innovative offense that takes a lot of threes, very forward thinking, and you could say the same thing about Ryan Odom at Virginia, being innovative roster composition, putting together a roster. We have to remember that in year one, he has Virginia as a three-seat NCAA tournament. So this is the region of innovation. I'm going to go right now with my picks starting at the top. Obviously Michigan advances, I'm going to take Georgia to beat St. Louis. So Mike White gets Georgia to the round of 32, another NCAA tournament appearance from Mike White, who has quietly done a great job after losing Silas, Denver, Jr. to Yukon, and then losing, obviously, Asa Nuel to the NBA. I'm going to take Akron and John Gross to upset Tech, Texas Tech, obviously, a little bit banged up after losing J.T. Tampin, but Tavari Johnson, obviously, one of the great major players
we have in the sport. Alabama over Hofstra, and then I'm going to have a Michigan Alabama game in the sweet 16, which should be a fascinating match up there. Michigan against Alabama. So we got Michigan moving on. Let's go to the bottom part of the bracket right now. Tennessee, Virginia is a war. I am going to go, this is a tough one. I'm going to roll the, I'm going to take Rick Barnes and Tennessee over the SMU. Obviously, Miami, Ohio, and I'm going to take Tennessee to go to the sweet 16, with Jacobi Gillespie, Nate Ament, Felix Akpara. I'm going to take Tennessee to turn the water off for the ACC. I'm going to take Kentucky over Santa Clara and Iowa State to be Tennessee State. And then I've got Iowa State, Tennessee, and a bloodbath in the sweet 16. That will be first to 60 wins. I'm going to take the cyclones there to move on. And I am going to have a,
Iowa State Michigan regional final in Chicago, which was the same place Michigan played against Purdue today. And I'm going to take Michigan to get to the final four. So you look right now at my final four. I've got three twos and a one. We've got obviously storylines all over the place. You've got Yukon against Houston. You have Michigan against Purdue, which is the rematch of the big 10 tournament title game. I am taking Yukon to beat Houston to advance to the national title game for the third time in the last four years. And I am going to take Purdue to win the rubber match against Michigan. And I then am going to, again, I'm a sentimental person in a rematch of the 2024 national title game. I am going to take Purdue to finish the job and win a national championship at Lucas Oilfield in Indianapolis. Matt Painter has said repeatedly that this is the best chance that
Purdue has to win a national championship. I said that anything less than a final four will be a major disappointment for Purdue. You're seeing obviously now what the path would look like for the boilers, who if they win their first two games, and I'll be with them their first two games, if they win their first two games, they are definitely going to be in a situation where they have to get out west and play these games in San Jose. Total win and more is one of those places where I always end up finding something I love. I was in my local total win recently and asked for a recommendation on a bourbon, and I ended up loving it. And honestly, the price is make it easy to say yes to grabbing a little extra like my go-to bottle of Cabernet. If you're not sure what to grab, the team there can really help point you in the right direction. Shop total win and more in store or online and get everything you need at the lowest prices. Spirits not sold in Virginia, North Carolina, drink responsibly B-21. Let's get into the chat right now. See some of your comments, see what you want to talk about. God, obviously all this chat is bleeding right now,
my God. Okay, let's look at some of these questions. This is Blake Widmer. He says, John, how does Purdue look to you now? Well, pretty good Blake. I just picked them the win the national championship. Now you're in a scenario where you've got Purdue as your team to win it all. That's going to be a big time, big time thing to keep an eye on moving forward. I think it's a team of destiny with the way obviously that they played. James Stuber says TCU is going to beat Ohio State and Duke. Well, look, I picked TCU to beat Ohio State and I said this on our show on CBS. I don't think people have obviously watched TCU closely enough to know how good this team is and how solid this team is. Think back to Jamie Dixon's teams at the University of Pittsburgh. Solid, don't turn it over, high percentage shots. I like TCU to beat Ohio State, setting up obviously a major major matchup with Duke, which again is reminiscent of what we saw. Okay, four years ago against Arizona in San Diego. John, what is the double digit seed you think is most likely to make the second weekend? Well,
I'll say this. I think it's a golden opportunity for John Gross and Akron, who almost beat UCLA four years ago in 2022. Santa Clara is going to be a trendy pick here, but I don't see Santa Clara beating both Iowa State and Kentucky. Wouldn't shock me if they beat Kentucky, but I don't think they will. Double digit seeds right now. I'm going to go with Troy. I think Troy is a team that people need to look at just because I think Nebraska has tapered off down the stretch. I know Vanderbilt is a team obviously that is playing great, great basketball, but Scott Cross's team, I think, you know, if you're looking at double digit seeds would have the best. I mean, you could make a case too for the NC State Texas winner who then would take a wounded BYU team on in four of them. But look, I'm going to say this. The Texas NC State winner, which I believe is going to be Tuesday night in Dayton, is going to have to play that game. And I know this from working on the first four past couple of years is going to have to play
that game and then get on a plane, go cross country to Portland, deal with the time change, practice, prepare, and then play. That is a lot to ask for that team to go do that. More questions here. A lot of Missouri fans talking about the idea that they can't believe they got a home game. That to me was a bad, bad deal in terms of the scenario going on. Let's see other questions here. Somebody saying Northern Iowa is your 5-12 run of this year. West Wash Bunny walking through that door, buddy. But keep an eye on Leon. Bum. There's right now a lot of people talking about John Shire in the chat. I see that else. Anybody wants to talk about somebody saying Kansas or St. Johns will lose early. I don't see Kansas as a cow Baptist. I don't see St. Johns losing in Northern Iowa. Takes some more questions. Arizona continues to show their own. There's a number one overall seedling. Not the number.
I will say this. Tommy Lloyd is one of the coaches in this tournament that is really going to be in the spotlight. That always happens when you're one seed. It always happens when you're at Arizona. You're always going to be hoping to get to a final four. Haven't been in 25 years. But things are completely aligned for Arizona to accomplish that. Arizona's one seed. Arizona's on the West Coast. Arizona is playing in San Diego in San Jose. And then Arizona also is in a situation where it's got veteran point guard play. It's got great size up front. I think, you know, Arizona is going to be hard pressed to lose before the sweet 16. But Arizona has not gotten past the sweet 16 under Tommy Lloyd. Lost to Houston in 2022. Lost the Princeton in the first rounds in 2023. 2024. Arizona got upset by Clemson last year. Got upset by Duke. Can't seem to get past the sweet 16. I think it will happen this year. But we don't know. We don't know
if we're going to see obviously Arizona being a situation where we'll get by Purdue, even though the games in San Jose to get to a final four. See what else we got going here right now. Some people are talking about this Duke St. John's game. Somebody brought a Troy. A lot of Nebraska fans getting obviously in the chat right now because I picked Troy to beat Nebraska. Look, I would love to go to Nebraska and I would love to go to Lincoln and give you guys a happy hour. But I'm just giving you the facts right now. Utah State. Now this is another interesting thing. People talking about Utah State. This is the first year since 2017 that the Mountain West conference has only had one team in the NCAA tournament. This has been a great, great league for a long, long time. And it's going to be a different league next year with the start of the new pack 12. But that is something to really, really monitor moving forward. A lot of people talking about the Purdue Arizona situation and the potential of the elite eight game. Take a couple more here before I put a bow on the show Virginia Tennessee. A lot of people obviously chiming in on the fact that
you know the ACC is obviously not going to be well represented in my sweet 16. I'll say this. I really think when you look at this bracket, I don't see a team in the ACC having a clear path to the second weekend other than Duke. It would not shock me if the ACC only gets one team in the second weekend. I think it could get to because obviously Virginia is a really, really good team. But that Tennessee matchup is looming for Virginia in the round of 32. You've got Rick Barnes defense. You've got a veteran point guard in Jacobi Gillespie who went to a sweet 16 last year at Maryland. And you also got Nate Amen. It was obviously one of the more talented players in the sport. I want to remind everybody that I'm going to be back with all of this dialogue and all of this topic Monday, one o'clock Eastern on CBS Sports Network. I will also be with you
before the start of the first round on Wednesday and before I go to St. Louis. So this content is only getting started. Think of this show as your sharkoo to reward for March madness. You've had the pursuit. You've had the crackers. You've had the grapes. But tomorrow we give you a little bit more. I don't know if you're getting the main course, but we're going to spice up the appetizers. Want to remind you guys as always to subscribe to Inside College Basketball now on both Apple and Spotify. We want to be your Bible for the college basketball season and beyond. We are the only college basketball podcast coming to you 52 weeks out of the calendar year and also want to remind you to like and subscribe to Inside College Basketball now on YouTube and also hit the hike button to give us the palpable buzz that is needed to make Inside College Basketball the elite college basketball podcast in the world. We need an army with us each and every show here on Inside College Basketball. And are you ready to be all you can be? 68 teams left. 67 games remaining.
I will be back with you Monday afternoon one o'clock Eastern on CBS Sports Network. This was Inside College Basketball now with John Rothstein. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd, or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in. With a full lineup of non-alcoholic beer styles, you can enjoy bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stuck the fridge for tip off with a variety of non-alcoholic craft styles available at your local grocery store or online at AthleticBrewing.com. Near beer, fit for all times.
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