It's officially March, my friends. The best time of the year for any college basketball fan. Get those brackets ready, get your Fubo free trials going, and get ready to cheer on a random college from the Midwest against a perennial powerhouse.
March Madness this year is set to begin officially on March 16th with Selection Sunday. If you are planning on making a bracket, that should be done after March 16th, but before March 20th.
While the NCAA Tournament marks the "official" beginning of March Madness, don't forget that conference tournament season can be just as chaotic, exciting, and memorable as the official 68-team bracket. The best part of this? We're already in the thick of conference tournament season, with champions having already been crowned and tickets punched to the "Big Dance".
Actual games will begin with the First Four on March 18th and 19th. The First Four are games where the last four teams into the tournament will play in pairs to determine the final entry into the tournament.
The first round then tips off after that, on March 20th and 21st. Each successive round follows, with short breaks coming between each round after the field has been narrowed to 32.
Entire Schedule
- Selection Sunday: 6 p.m. ET Sunday, March 16 on CBS
- First Four: March 18-19
- First round: March 20-21
- Second round: March 22-23
- Sweet 16: March 27-28
- Elite Eight: March 29-30
- Final Four: April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas
- NCAA championship game: April 7 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas