{"id":164628,"date":"2026-03-16T03:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164628\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T03:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:07:18","slug":"matchups-schedule-and-more-nbc-new-york-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/164628\/","title":{"rendered":"Matchups, schedule and more \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

The madness<\/a> is coming.<\/p>\n

Selection Sunday on March 15 revealed the 68 teams that will compete in the men’s NCAA Tournament<\/a>, beginning with the First Four.<\/p>\n

Duke, Arizona, Michigan and Florida claimed the No. 1 seeds in the four regions, while 31-1 Miami (OH)<\/a> will have to fight through an extra game to play in the first round. <\/p>\n

Here’s everything to know for the men’s bracket, including matchups and dates:<\/p>\n

What are the men’s 2026 March Madness matchups?<\/p>\n

Here’s a region-by-region breakdown of the matchups and seedings:<\/p>\n

EAST<\/p>\n

1 Duke vs. 16 Siena<\/p>\n

8 Ohio State vs. 9 TCU<\/a><\/p>\n

5 St. John’s vs. 12 Northern Iowa<\/p>\n

4 Kansas vs. 13 Cal Baptist<\/p>\n

6 Louisville vs. 11 South Florida<\/p>\n

3 Michigan State vs. 14 North Dakota State<\/p>\n

7 UCLA<\/a> vs. 10 UCF <\/p>\n

2 UConn<\/a> vs. 15 Furman<\/p>\n

WEST<\/p>\n

1 Arizona vs. 16 Long Island<\/p>\n

8 Villanova vs. 9 Utah State<\/p>\n

5 Wisconsin vs. 12 High Point<\/p>\n

4 Arkansas vs. 13 Hawai’i<\/p>\n

6 BYU vs. 11 Texas\/NC State<\/p>\n

3 Gonzaga vs. 14 Kennesaw State<\/p>\n

7 Miami (FL) vs. 10 Missouri<\/p>\n

2 Purdue vs. 15 Queens (NC)<\/p>\n

MIDWEST<\/p>\n

1 Michigan vs. 16 UMBC\/Howard<\/p>\n

8 Georgia vs. 9 Saint Louis<\/p>\n

5 Texas Tech vs. 12 Akron<\/p>\n

4 Alabama vs. 13 Hofstra<\/p>\n

6 Tennessee vs. 11 Miami (OH)\/SMU<\/p>\n

3 Virginia vs. 14 Wright State<\/p>\n

7 Kentucky vs. 10 Santa Clara<\/p>\n

2 Iowa State vs. 15 Tennessee State<\/p>\n

SOUTH<\/p>\n

1 Florida vs. 16 Prairie View A&M\/Lehigh<\/p>\n

8 Clemson vs. 9 Iowa<\/p>\n

5 Vanderbilt vs. 12 McNeese<\/p>\n

4 Nebraska vs. 13 Troy<\/p>\n

6 UNC vs. 11 VCU<\/p>\n

3 Illinois vs. 14 Penn<\/p>\n

7 Saint Mary’s vs. 10 Texas A&M<\/a><\/p>\n

2 Houston vs. 15 Idaho<\/p>\n

When do the men’s 2026 March Madness games start?<\/p>\n

The First Four teams will battle on March 17-18 before the first round gets underway from March 19-20.<\/p>\n

What is the men’s 2026 March Madness schedule?<\/p>\n

Here are the dates to know for when games will take place:<\/p>\n

First Four: Tuesday, March 17 and Wednesday, March 18<\/p>\n

First round: Thursday, March 19 and Friday, March 20<\/p>\n

Second round: Saturday, March 21 and Sunday, March 22<\/p>\n

Sweet 16: Thursday, March 26 and Friday, March 27<\/p>\n

Elite Eight: Saturday, March 28 and Sunday, March 29<\/p>\n

Final Four: Saturday, April 4\u00a0at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis<\/p>\n

NCAA championship game: Monday, April 6\u00a0at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRichard ‘Rip’ Hamilton says the excitement of the NCAA tournament is unlike anything else in basketball and believes UConn has what it takes to win another national championship. The Huskies legend also shared what he believes is the secret behind UConn basketball programs\u2019 long-standing success.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The madness is coming. Selection Sunday on March 15 revealed the 68 teams that will compete in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[63551,12612,13629,63552,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-164628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-march-madness","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}