When will March Madness teams be announced?
The 2024 March Madness, or the NCAA Division I basketball tournament, will kick off on March 17 with Selection Sunday.
This is when the 68-team bracket for both men's and women's tournaments, including the matchups for every first-round game and location, are announced.
For teams, Selection Sunday will be exciting or heartbreaking depending on what position they expect to be in. For fans, it's a time to put on their thinking hats and predict which teams will go to the Big Dance.
But before anything else, let's peek at what to expect on Selection Sunday.
How many teams are in March Madness 2024?
The men's and women's tournaments will each have 68 collegiate basketball programs competing in this year's March Madness.
These are the squads that performed well during the season, have the best records in their conferences or received automatic bids by winning their conference tournaments.
Also read: 50+ funny March Madness bracket names: Best, funniest names for 2024 NCAA Tournament pools
How are NCAA Tournament teams selected?
The NCAA Division I men's and women's tournament selection committees will decide the deserving teams and place them accordingly in the 2024 brackets.
According to the 2022-23 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Principles and Procedures for Establishing the Bracket, the committee selects the 36 best at-large teams, seeds the 68 teams based on their performances during the season and places them into the championship bracket.
The men's and women's committees will build brackets that cross four regions, including the last four at-large teams and teams seeded 65 to 68 that will play in the First Four.
How to watch and stream March Madness 2024?
Selection Sunday for the men's tournament will be revealed at 6 p.m. ET on CBS, while ESPN will cover the women's tournament selections at 8 p.m. ET.
The First Four, slated from March 19-20, will be aired on TruTV, while the first and second rounds from March 21-24 will be aired through CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTv.
The regional semifinals and finals from March 28-31 will be covered by CBS and TBS. TBS will exclusively broadcast the Final Four and the national championship game on April 6 and April 8, respectively.
All games will be streamed through DirecTV, FuboTV, Paramount+ and Sling TV.
The women's tournament will be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News and ABC. It will also be streamed on ESPN+. ESPN will air the Final Four live on April 5, at 7:30 and 9 p.m. ET while the championship game will be broadcast on April 7, at 3 p.m. ET on ABC.
The women's March Madness can be streamed on ESPN+, YouTube TV, Sling TV and Hulu + Live TV.
Read more: 2024 March Madness Selection Sunday: Time, date, TV, live stream and more explored for NCAA bracket announcement