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The day college basketball fans, office bracket pool gurus, and cute mascot aficionados have been waiting for is finally here.
March Madness begins in earnest on Thursday, Mar. 20, with the start of the first round of the 2025 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The women's first round begins the following day.
The men's tourney officially tipped off on Tuesday, Mar. 18, with the annual First Four play-in games in Dayton, Ohio. Four teams have already won a game, including one of the most storied programs in North Carolina, and Alabama State on an incredible buzzer-beater.
So whether you know what "KenPom" means or you're just picking green teams in your bracket, here's what you need to know to prepare for the madness.
When Are The Games?
Creighton and Louisville will get the men's first-round chaos started at 12:15 p.m. on CBS. TNT, TBS, and TruTV will also show games with staggered start times going late into the night.
On the women's side, Michigan and Iowa State will be the opening first-round game at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Mar. 20. ABC and the ESPN family of networks will show all women's tournament games.
The men and women each have 32 first-round games, promising exciting finishes and unexpected victories. The rounds will whittle the fields down to 32 teams, before the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight the following weekend.
The men's Final Four returns to San Antonio on Saturday, Apr. 5. It's the first time the Alamo City has hosted since Villanova won the 2018 national championship.
Tampa will welcome the women's Final Four on Sunday, Apr. 6. The Final Four returns to Cigar City for the first time since 2019.
The men's national title game will tip off on Monday, Apr. 7, and the women's championship will be on Tuesday, Apr. 8.
You can click here to see the NCAA's full men's and women's tournament schedules.
The Top Men's Teams
The South is in a great position to potentially win its first men's national championship since Baylor cut down the nets in 2021. Auburn, Duke, Houston, and Florida are the No. 1 seeds in each region, hoping their mayhem continues into April.
Auburn is the top overall men's seed despite losing three of their last four games. The Tigers looked dominant during earlier stretches of the season, thanks to elite performances by players like forward Johnni Broome, a likely frontrunner for the Naismith Trophy.
Led by head coach Bruce Pearl, the alma mater of Charles Barkley started the season by winning the Maui Invitational. They continued that momentum and War Eagle captured the SEC regular season title before falling to top-10 Tennessee in the conference tournament semifinals.
Duke has college basketball's biggest star in freshman phenom Cooper Flagg. The Maine native has lived up to the hype by leading the Blue Devils to a 31-3 record, only losing one game since Thanksgiving.
Flagg, who's likely going to be the top NBA draft pick in June, suffered a left ankle injury in the ACC quarterfinals and it's unclear how that'll impact his tournament playing time. Outside of Flagg, the guard combo of Kon Knueppel and Caleb Foster will be crucial to bringing Duke its first national title since 2015.
Houston has earned its fourth-straight No. 1 seed but is hoping to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 2021. The Cougars are led by senior sharpshooting guard L.J. Cryer and basketball stats website KenPom.com has ranked H-Town as the second-most efficient defense in the country.
Florida rounds out the top seeds but should hardly seem like an afterthought with their No. 1 offense on KenPom. The Gators were powered to the SEC tournament title by Iona transfer guard Walter Clayton Jr. and the team appears to have its best chance of cutting down the nets since winning back-to-back titles in 2006-07.
The Defending Men's Champs
Speaking of going back-to-back, two-time defending champion UConn is looking to pull off the first men's three-peat since historic coach John Wooden's UCLA squads won seven consecutive titles from 1967-73. The Huskies will have a tough road back to the Final Four with a possible second-round showdown against Florida looming.
After two dominant postseasons in Storrs, the Huskies have faced much more adversity this season.
UConn lost all three Maui tournament games, struggled defensively through many stretches, and managed several significant injuries – with freshman star forward Liam McNeeley missing eight key games in the middle of Big East play. Still, the eight-seeded Huskies aren't strangers to making a shocking title run, winning it all in 2014 as a seven-seed.
Storm Clouds Return
The season's best Big East team is just south of Connecticut in New York City. St. John's won their first conference tournament title since 2000 and as a two-seed, the Red Storm seem to have their best chance at returning to the Final Four in 40 years.
The Johnnies have been resurrected under Hall-of-Fame coach Rick Pitino in his second season at the Queens school. UMass transfer guard R.J. Luis Jr. won conference player of the year and helped lead the nation's most efficient defense, according to KenPom.
Cinderellas Waiting
Some of the best March Madness fun comes from discovering "Cinderella" stories. There are several men's teams hoping to elevate their names across the country, just like mid-Atlantic schools UMBC, Saint Peter's, and FDU in recent years.
The first might be the most famous Cinderella program: Gonzaga. While the Bulldogs have performed far behind their last few regular seasons, they're still No. 9 overall on KenPom, thanks to bruising forward Graham Ike and senior guard Ryan Nembhard.
Another name to watch for may seem familiar but is actually in its first tournament: UC San Diego – no, not San Diego State or the University of San Diego. After jumping to D-I in 2020, the Tritons earned a bid in their first tournament-eligible season and the 30-4 Big West champs UCSD will hope to knock off Michigan.
Some other popular Cinderella picks have been Missouri Valley powerhouse Drake (not the rapper), another first-timer in High Point, 2024 Auburn-slayers Yale, and Colorado State, which likely would have missed March Madness if they didn't win the Mountain West tournament.
The Women's Tournament Favorites
The women's tournament has grown in popularity in recent years and former Iowa star Caitlin Clark certainly helped fuel the rise. With CC now in the WNBA, there are newer stars who have emerged.
UCLA is the top women's seed after posting a 30-2 record in their first Big Ten season. Those two losses were to city rival USC but the Bruins, led by center Lauren Betts, knocked off the Trojans in a thrilling conference title game.
USC has one of the biggest women's college stars in JuJu Watkins. The sensational sophomore was the driving force behind the Trojans' regular season conference title and huge nonconference win at UConn.
Defending champion South Carolina is aiming for back-to-back championships and their third title in four years. Philadelphia native (and proud Eagles fan) Dawn Staley has coached the Gamecocks to another SEC title and the other USC has only lost three games to top 10 teams.
Texas is the other No. 1 seed and the Longhorns impressed in their first SEC season. The Horns' defense has stifled teams and forward Madison Booker is one of the nation's best scorers.
UConn women's basketball senior guard Paige Bueckers playing against the St. John's Red Storm at the XL Center in Hartford, CT, on February 25, 2022.
There are two huge favorites off the top bracket line: UConn and Notre Dame.
UConn is seeking its first women's national title since 2016, hoping to end what seems like an absurd drought for the historical powerhouse. Senior star Paige Bueckers commands the Huskies' offense and freshman phenom Sarah Strong has shined in the frontcourt.
Notre Dame may have been the biggest surprise when the bracket was revealed, slipping to a No. 3 seed despite being the top-ranked team nationally for several weeks. South Jersey native Hannah Hidalgo has been a dynamic scorer for the Fighting Irish and Westchester County, NY, guard Sonia Citron has been a lockdown perimeter defender.
Hannah Hidalgo led the Fighting Irish in bringing No. 2 UConn down on Thursday, Dec. 12.
Bracketology
Unless you're a basketball diehard, you might only be watching March Madness for your bracket picks. Websites like NCAA.com, CBS Sports, Yahoo, and ESPN are commonly used for office pools or just for fun.
Here are the top national champion picks as of Wednesday, Mar. 19:
Men's Tournament (according to NCAA.com)
- Duke - 30.84% of brackets
- Florida - 16.95%
- Auburn - 9.42%
- Houston - 7.22%
- Michigan State - 4.97%
- St. John's - 4.38%
- Tennessee - 3.59%
- Alabama - 3.36%
- Kentucky - 1.91%
- Gonzaga - 1.45%
Women's Tournament (according to ESPN)
- South Carolina - 26.8%
- UConn - 20.5%
- USC - 13.1%
- UCLA - 10.7%
- Texas - 6.3%
- Notre Dame - 4.0%
- Duke - 2.2%
- TCU - 2.1%
- LSU - 1.9%
- NC State - 1.8%
Don't expect to nail all of your selections, though. The NCAA says the coin-flip odds of a perfect bracket are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 – although you can shrink that to about 1 in 120.2 billion if you know at least some ball.
So finish up your brackets – or get ready to rip them up – and enjoy the excitement.
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