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March is the month that not only brings Spring and St. Patrick’s Day but also brings the Men’s NCAA College Basketball Tournament. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the tournament and you can participate in the fun by watching the games and picking your brackets.
What Is March Madness?
March Madness is another name for the collegiate Division I men’s basketball tournament. You can find out all about March Madness at the official site: What is March Madness: The NCAA tournament explained.
Be sure to check out the short video The History of March Madness in 2:23 explaining the history of the tournament. Since 1939 colleges have been competing in the NCAA tournament, with the Oregon Ducks winning the first tournament.
Eight teams competed in the tournament originally but beginning in the 1980’s 68 teams are in the tournament each year. You can find a complete list of the winners for each year at the NCAA March Madness page.
The tournament begins on Tuesday, March 19 for the first four qualifying schools. The bracket of 64 teams starts on Thursday, March 21. The Final Four teams compete in the National Championship on April 6 with the finals on April 8.
The NCAA March Madness 2019 dates and schedule page includes a full list of games, dates and the networks on which they will be broadcast.
How to Watch March Madness
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the tournament and the games will be broadcast on four different stations: CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV. You can watch the games on these channels or stream them from apps and websites.
Note: Unless you have an unlimited data plan, make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi to stream the games to a mobile device.
NCAA March Madness Live will be broadcasting the games on the March Madness Live website and on the app.
To watch the games on NCAA March Madness Live, register with your paid TV subscription.
Don’t have a paid TV subscription? You can watch March Madness Live games for three hours. After that you can watch games that are broadcast on CBS through the March Madness Live website and app.
The CBS Sports app will also be streaming the live March Madness games that are broadcast on CBS.
Bracket Fun
You can participate in the action by filling out March Madness brackets to predict the winner of each game. The goal of filling out the perfect bracket is quite difficult to achieve. According to a Duke University math professor, the odds of predicting a perfect March Madness Bracket are one in 2.4 trillion. Duke Math Professor Says Odds of a Perfect Bracket are One in 2.4 Trillion
Even getting every pick right the first round of play is impressive. This tweet from last year shows how few brackets had a perfect score after the first round:
Only 0.04% of Tournament Challenge brackets are still perfect through Thursday.
Check to see if you’re one of the fortunate few at https://t.co/dOBTvSqV9l. pic.twitter.com/EsP8Yjuy2P
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) March 16, 2018
If you want to fill out a March Madness Bracket you can either print one out from the official NCAA March Madness Bracket website or fill one out online.
Filling out a bracket online is a fun way to follow the tournament and makes scoring your picks much easier. Begin filling out your bracket Sunday evening, March 17. You must lock in your online brackets picks by Thursday, March 21.
NCAA Bracket Challenge
To fill out a bracket online go to NCAA Bracket Challenge and register. Then choose your picks for the winner of each round as well as the championship.
Follow your bracket progress on the NCAA March Madness Live app:
CBS Sports
You can also compete with a group, such as co-workers, friends and family, college friends and any other group with your bracket picks. CBS Sports lets you set up groups to compete with your brackets or you can join the general competition against everyone else.
Follow your bracket scores on the CBS Sports app:
ESPN
ESPN is offering prizes to the top bracket picks. To fill yours out go to ESPN Tournament Challenge, register and enter your picks. ESPN 2019 Bracket Challenge prizes include a trip for two to the Maui Jim Maui Invitational Tournament in Maui, Hawaii, and a $10,000 gift card to Amazon.
Your Thoughts
Will you be filling out a bracket for the NCAA March Madness Tournament this year? Will you be watching the games? Which college teams are you rooting for?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
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*Basketball photos (edited) courtesy of Chad Cooper via Flickr and Creative Commons
Dear Carolyn,
thanks for this great tips. Here in Europe it is a coming sport but very difficult to stay live on this. Thanks for all this links.
Hi Thomas, Yes, the NCAA March Madness Tournament is mostly a U.S. tradition. I hope you find you are able to watch the games from Europe.
Hi Carolyn, Thanks for the great post. Even though we are staying in the middle east, me and my bro are great fans of the NCAA and is currently in the watch list. Thanks again for the article.
Hi Mark, I’m so glad you enjoyed the article. I hope you enjoyed the tournament. Go, Cavaliers!