When do brackets have to be in by

Again, thank Maryland for that. Opening night of Mike Krzyzewski's final season is child's play for Duke's latest group of one-and-done talents. DeCourcy: Freshmen hold fate of Coach K's farewell tour. Duke vs. Paolo Banchero: Analyzing Duke debut for potential No.

Kansas veteran Ochai Agbaji shows star quality Jayhawks need in season-opening win at Champions Classic. The NCAA tournament will get started with the First Four games on Tuesday, March 13, but most bracket challenges do not lock until tip-off of the first game of the Round of 64, which will happen around noon on Thursday, March Since the inception of the First Four games in the tournament, at least one of those teams has won a Round of 64 game, three of them have reached the Sweet 16 and in , seeded VCU reached the Final Four, so it will be crucial to pay attention to those matchups if you want to optimize your bracket.

Make sure that wherever you submit your bracket that you follow all of the rules involved with bracket entry. Make sure if there is a tiebreaker such as predicting the final score of the national championship game that you properly fill it out so there is no reason for your bracket to not count.

Get started with your bracket once all the teams are revealed on Selection Sunday March 11 after all of the conference tournament champions have been determined. Several top teams face a critical test away from home. You can also stream every game on March Madness Live. By filling out a bracket! The brackets will lock before the first game of the first round begins, so get your picks in before then.

How hard is filling out a bracket? Division I Men's Basketball. How to pick a 15 vs. Men's basketball is back, and this is why we're excited After a busy opening night, Mike Lopresti highlights all the key moments from the first day of NCAA Division I men's basketball and how they fit in history.

Four of those teams are eliminated in the opening round of the tournament known as the First Four , leaving us with a field of 64 for the first round. Those 64 teams are split into four regions of 16 teams each, with each team being ranked 1 through In order to reward better teams, first-round matchups are determined by pitting the top team in the region against the bottom team No.

Then the next highest vs. In theory, this means that the 1 seeds have the easiest opening matchup to win in the bracket. Much like the titular character from the fairy tale, a Cinderella team is one that is much more successful than expected. Thirty-six different teams have won a championship, but no team has won more than UCLA, which has 11, 10 of which came a span of 12 years from to