2019 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament

2019 NCAA Division I
Men's Basketball Tournament
Season 2018–19
Teams 68
Finals site U.S. Bank Stadium
Minneapolis, Minnesota
NCAA Division I Men's Tournaments
«2018 2020»

The 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament will be a 68-team single-elimination tournament to determine the men's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college basketball national champion for the 2018–19 season. The 81st edition of the Tournament is scheduled to begin on March 19, 2019 and will conclude with the championship game on April 8 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[1]

Tournament procedure

Pending any changes to the current format, a total of 68 teams will enter the 2019 tournament. 32 automatic bids shall be awarded to each program that wins their conference's tournament. The remaining 36 bids are "at-large", with selections extended by the NCAA Selection Committee.

Eight teams (the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams) will play in the First Four (the successor to what had been popularly known as "play-in games" through the 2010 tournament). The winners of these games advance to the main draw of the tournament.

The Selection Committee will also seed the entire field from 1 to 68.

2019 NCAA Tournament schedule and venues

Dayton
Hartford
Salt Lake City
Des Moines
Jacksonville
Tulsa
Columbus
Columbia
San Jose
2019 First Four (orange) and first and second rounds (green)
Louisville
Anaheim
Washington, D.C.
Kansas City
Minneapolis
2019 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 2019 tournament:[2]

First Four

First and Second Rounds

Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

National Semifinals and Championship (Final Four and Championship)

2019 will see U.S. Bank Stadium become the fortieth venue to host the Final Four. This is the first hosting of the event at the facility, built on the site of the old Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, a two-time host in 1992 and 2001. The last time a venue hosted the Final Four for its first hosting of an NCAA tournament was 1977 when Atlanta's Omni Coliseum hosted the Final Four. It will also see the tournament return to Hartford's XL Center for the first time since 1998. And, for the first time since 1970, the tournament will return to Columbia, South Carolina when it comes to the Colonial Life Arena, the second tournament the state will host since the end of the ban due to the Confederate Flag controversy.

Media Coverage

Television

CBS Sports and Turner Sports have US television rights to the tournament.

  • First Four – truTV
  • First and Second rounds – CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV
  • Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight) – CBS and TBS
  • National Semifinals (Final Four) – CBS
  • National Championship – CBS

Radio

Westwood One has exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.

Internet

Video

Live video of games will be available for streaming through the following means:[3]

  • NCAA March Madness Live (website and app, no CBS games on digital media players; access to games on Turner channels requires TV Everywhere authentication through provider)
  • CBS All Access (only CBS games, service subscription required)
  • CBS Sports website and app (only CBS games)
  • Bleacher Report website and Team Stream app (only Turner games, access requires subscription)
  • Watch TBS website and app (only TBS games, requires TV Everywhere authentication)
  • Watch TNT website and app (only TNT games, requires TV Everywhere authentication)
  • Watch truTV website and app (only truTV games, requires TV Everywhere authentication)
  • Websites and apps of cable, satellite, and OTT providers of CBS & Turner (access requires subscription)

Audio

Live audio of games will be available for streaming through the following means:

  • NCAA March Madness Live (website and app)
  • Westwood One Sports website
  • TuneIn (website and app)
  • Websites and apps of Westwood One Sports affiliates

See also

References

  1. ↑ Prather, Shannon (December 7, 2017). "Plans for 2019 NCAA Final Four are underway". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
  2. ↑ "Future Division I Men's Basketball Championship sites". NCAA. 21 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Maiman, Beth (March 8, 2017). "March Madness TV schedule: How to watch and live stream every game in the NCAA men's basketball tournament". NCAA. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
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