March Madness: NCAA Tournament schedule
The nets won’t be cut down in Phoenix until the first Monday in April, when this season’s NCAA Basketball National Champion will be crowned after the winners in 67 total games are decided. But it is never too soon to start circling the important dates on your upcoming NCAA Tournament calendar.
The first of those is Sunday, March 12 – known as Selection Sunday. That is when the tournament committee, in all its infinite wisdom, seed the bracket and either break the hearts of players on the bubble, or grant them the honor of appearing in the 2017 NCAA Tournament – a moment in their life they will never forget.
Just two days later, on March 14 and 15, the tournament tips off for real with the First Four – the four games that were added in 2011 to expand the field from 64 to 68 teams. Those four games will be played in Dayton, Ohio on those two dates, with the winners moving on to the First Round.
MORE: Tourney profile: Kansas Jayhawks
That First Round (March 16 and 17), with a total of 16 games on Thursday and another 16 matches on Friday, are two of the most exciting days in all of sports. It’s when we will see our first buzzer-beater, our first top seed escape by the skin of their teeth, our first emerging Cinderella story, and our first #12 seed beating a #5 seed. It has happened 46 times in NCAA Tournament history, including every year since 2008. And you can be sure that at least one #12 seed will advance to the 2nd round this year. Considering how crazy things got during the 2016 tournament, with a #2, #3, and #4 all losing as well, maybe, just maybe, this will be the first year ever for a #16 to beat a #1.
For as often as we get upsets in the First Round, the Second Round (March 18 and 19) is usually the equalizer. It’s when teams punch their tickets for the Sweet 16, and by and large any #14 and #13 seeds that shocked the world two days earlier meet a better, stronger, and more experienced team, ending their dreams of making NCAA Tournament history. But don’t mistake the lack of big time upsets for a lack of big time drama. Some of basketball’s best games come from the tournament’s second round.
MORE: March Madness – By the Numbers
Moving on in the schedule, it’s the Sweet 16, to be played March 24 and 25 in the four regional sites – Kansas City (Midwest), San Jose (West), New York (East), and Memphis (South). The winners of the Sweet 16 will then face off against each other in the Elite 8, also known as the Regional Final, with the winner there advancing to the Final Four in Phoenix, AZ the following weekend. Incidentally this will be the first ever Final Four to be held in Arizona.
On Saturday, April 1, the Final Four tips off with its two semifinal games. And then on Monday, April 3, one of those remaining teams will win the National Championship and forever have its name recorded among the greats of college basketball.
