March Madness 2025 dates and locations: When does the NCAA basketball tournament begin?
The NCAA’s crown jewel, March Madness, is just over a week away! The tournament gets underway with Selection Sunday on March 16.
It’s early March, and you know what that means…March Madness! The 2025 men’s NCAA tournament will hold the First Four games in Dayton, Ohio while the Final Four and Championship game will be played at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
March 4th Bracketology update
— Nick Bracketology (CBB guru) (@nickbateman33) March 4, 2025
- Juiciest 4 vs 13 matchups of ALL TIME
- Kansas, UConn & Gonzaga all 8 seeds. Kansas feels like a 7 still but Illinois deserved to move up.
- Alabama has a really strong case to be that final 1 seed still
- Indiana is IN pic.twitter.com/tn04vWnjwu
Things kick off with Selection Sunday on Sunday March 16, when 68 teams will be granted entry. 31 of those teams will be given the automatic bid by winning their conference while the other 37 will receive at-large bids.
The tournament begins with the First Four on Tuesday, March 18 and will conclude with the championship game on Tuesday, April 8.
Here are all the dates and locations for this year’s men’s March Madness tournament.
NCAA 2025 men’s March Madness tournament full schedule
| Date | Event | Location(s) | Venue | Time (ET) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 16 | Selection Sunday (on CBS) | N/A | N/A | 6 p.m. |
| March 18-19 | First Four | Dayton, OH | UD Arena | TBD |
| March 20-21 | First Round | Lexington, KY; Providence, RI; Seattle, WA; Wichita, KS; Cleveland, OH; Denver, CO; Milwaukee, WI, Raleigh, NC | Rupp Arena; Amica Mutual Pvilion; Climate Pledge Arena' Intrust Bank Arena; Rocket Arena; Ball Arena; Fiserv Forum; Lenovo Center | TBD |
| March 22-23 | Second Round | Lexington, KY; Providence, RI; Seattle, WA; Wichita, KS; Cleveland, OH; Denver, CO; Milwaukee, WI, Raleigh, NC | Rupp Arena; Amica Mutual Pvilion; Climate Pledge Arena' Intrust Bank Arena; Rocket Arena; Ball Arena; Fiserv Forum; Lenovo Center | TBD |
| March 27-28 | Sweet 16 | Newark, NJ; San Francisco, CA; Atlanta, GA; Indianapolis, IN | Prudential Center; Chase Center; State Farm Arena; Lucas Oil Stadium | TBD |
| March 29-30 | Elite Eight | Newark, NJ; San Francisco, CA; Atlanta, GA; Indianapolis, IN | Prudential Center; Chase Center; State Farm Arena; Lucas Oil Stadium | TBD |
| April 5 | Final Four | San Antonio, TX | Alamodome | TBD |
| April 7 | NCAA Championship | San Antonio, TX | Alamodome | TBD |
Which teams can we expect in the 2025 March Madness tournament?
This week is the final week of the regular college basketball season before conference tournaments begin, which will determine the automatic bids into the 68-team field - the 31 conference winners. The teams on the bubble will have to prove to the selection committee that they’re worth putting into the Big Dance as well.
At the moment, Auburn is the clear No. 1 overall seed (South region), but the No. 1s for the West, Midwest, and East regions are still a gigantic toss-up.
2024-25 SEC Regular Season Champions🏆 pic.twitter.com/jwnGAUn9VA
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) March 1, 2025
Here are the current AP top 25 NCAA rankings for men’s basketball (as of Tuesday, March 4):
- Auburn
- Duke
- Houston
- Tennessee
- Florida
- St. John's
- Alabama
- MI State
- Texas Tech
- Iowa State
- Clemson
- Wisconsin
- Maryland
- Louisville
- Missouri
- Memphis
- Michigan
- Purdue
- Kentucky
- Marquette
- St. Mary's CA
- Texas A&M
- BYU
- Arizona
- MS State
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