College basketball is about to take center stage in the sports world with the start of March Madness 2023. The NCAA Tournament schedule features 68 teams competing in a total of 67 games at more than a dozen locations, culminating with the national championship game three weeks after March Madness tips off.
The March Madness 2023 field will be revealed at 6 p.m. ET Sunday with the Selection Show on CBS. The NCAA Tournament officially begins two days later on March 14 with the First Four games.
The tournament concludes with the Final Four, which begins April 1 at NRG Stadium in Houston. The national championship takes place April 3 between two teams that have won at least five straight games in the NCAA Tournament.
Most teams must win six straight games in March Madness in order to win the national championship. The eight teams that are selected to play in the First Four will have to win seven straight NCAA Tournament games for a title run.
Eight teams will compete in the First Four on March 14-15 in Dayton, Ohio. Four of those teams will win and advance to the first round of March Madness.
The NCAA Tournament’s first round features 64 teams competing on March 16 or 17 across eight different locations. The second round takes place March 18-19 in those same locations, featuring the 32 teams that win their respective first-round games.
Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala., Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa, Amway Center in Orlando and Golden 1 Center in Sacramento will host first-round games on March 16 and second-round games on March 18.
Locations for the March 17 first-round games and March 19 second-round games are Albany’s (N.Y.) MVP Arena, Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, Denver’s Ball Arena and Greensboro (N.C.) Coliseum.
The second week of March Madness will take place in Las Vegas, New York, Kansas City and Louisville. T-Mobile Arena and Madison Square Garden will host Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games on March 23 and 25. Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center and Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center are scheduled to be locations for Sweet 16 and Elite Eight matchups on March 24 and 26.
Kansas won the 2022 national championship. The Jayhawks will be among the favorites to cut down the nets in Houston on April 3. No school has won the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years since Florida did it in 2006 and 2007.
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