Get Ready for Prime Time College Basketball
It’ll be here before you know it…March Madness, the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Eight and the Final Four. Here’s everything you need to know to get ready for this year’s big dance:
The Selection Process
The official selection of teams to participate in the NCAA basketball championships will take place on Sunday, March 12. In that process, 68 teams will be chosen, but only 64 will go into the main draw. Thirty two of the teams playing in the tournament will enter with automatic bids, based on winning their conference tournament. The remaining 36 teams are deemed to be “at-large” selections. All at-large selections are made by the NCAA Selection Committee.
The First Four
Once the 68 teams are chosen, the NCAA Selection Committee will rank (or seed) all of them from 1 to 68. The four lowest-seeded teams with automatic berths and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams will play in the first round of the tournament, known as the First Four, played in Dayton, Ohio on March 14-15, 2023. The winners of those four games will advance to the main draw.
The First Weekend
The main draw starts on Thursday, March 16. Over the next two days, four games each will be played in Birmingham, AL; Des Moines, IA; Orlando, FL; Sacramento, CA; Albany, NY; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, CO; and Greensboro, NC. Over March 18-19, two more games will be played in each city, with each location sending the winning two teams to the “Sweet Sixteen.”
The Second Weekend
The Sweet Sixteen games will be played in four regionals over March 23-26. In 2023, the West Regional will be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas; the East Regional will be in New York City, at the Madison Square Garden; the Midwest Regional will be at the T-Mobile Center, in Kansas City, MO; and the South Regional will be played at the KFC Yum! Center, in Louisville, KY. Each regional will advance one team to the Final Four.
The Final Four
This year’s championship weekend will be held at NRG Stadium, in Houston, Texas. The semifinals will be held on Saturday, April 1, with the championship game played on Monday night, April 3.
