March Madness on TV (plan ahead!)

Selection Sunday

CBS has the official selection show on Sunday March 12.

ESPN will bracket the official selection with two Bracketology shows, one anchored at ESPN and the other at ESPNU. The SportsCenter in between the two Bracketology shows will discuss the brackets right after they are announced on CBS.

CSTV (now a CBS company) will have a 90-minute "Crystal Ball" to discuss the brackets right after the CBS Selection Show finishes.

The Games

CBS will show the games, starting on Thursday the 16th at 12pmET/9amPT. In some cases, CBS may show a different game on the HD CBS station. Check local listings.

DirectTV viewers can watch all the out of market games in parallel if they purchase the March Madness package.

Computer users can sign up for free to watch all the out of market games online at ncaasports.com/mmod. Bandwidth and availability may be be limited, since free will generate a lot of interest.

Additional Tourney TV Coverage

CSTV will carry a 30-minute pre-game show on game-days, starting before the 12pmET/9amPT broadcast on CBS.

CSTV will also produce a daily highlights show that will run on CSTV throughout the night/next morning. Last year it was also carried by SpikeTV. Not sure about this year.

CSTV will also have coverage of press conferences ("Full Court Press") and an in-studio show with analysts called "Tourney Talk" on gamedays.

ESPN will have the usual cast of characters on GameDay/GameNight, and SportsCenter along with tourney coverage on the various other ESPN/ESPN2 shows.

ESPNews will carry press conferences, highlights, news and other related stuff.

FSN/FCS will have a preview show probably featuring the cast of characters from their Sunday Night Hoops TipOff Show.

Blast from the Past

ESPN Classic will have three 12-hour blocks of classic NCAA games. That's a total of 18 games! Set your TiVos/VCRs because they start at 7amET/4amPT and end at 7pmET/4pmPT. The first block starts just a few hours after the selections are announced on Selection Sunday. Check local listings.

CSTV will also feature 1-2 classic college basketball games per day.