NCAA March Madness 2021
Due to the pandemic, this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is going to look very different than it has in the past. Last year there was no tournament, so we’ll take it any way we can get it.
The NCAA announced that the entire March Madness tournament would be held in Indiana in 2021 with most of the games taking place in Indianapolis. This is reminiscent of the “Bubble” concept used by the NBA in 2020.
Here’s is the schedule for the NCAA March Madness Tournament for 2021
- Selection Sunday: 6 p.m. ET March 14
- First Four: 4 p.m. ET start on Thursday, March 18
- First Round: 12 p.m. ET start on Friday, March 19, and Saturday, March 20
- Second Round: 12 p.m. ET start on Sunday, March 21, and Monday, March 22
- Sweet 16: 2 p.m. ET start on Saturday, March 27, and 1 p.m. start on Sunday, March 28
- Elite Eight: 7 p.m. ET start on Monday, March 29, and 6 p.m. start on Tuesday, March 30
- Final Four: 5 p.m. ET start on Saturday, April 3
- NCAA Championship Game: 9 p.m. ET Monday, April 5
The games are being broadcast on TV through several networks including CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV. Because of the unique format this year, the NCAA has modified some of its bracketing principles which you can read about here.
March Madness Family Setup and Rules
Tracking your March Madness Family Brackets
- Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge
- ESPN Tournament Challenge
- CBS Sports March Madness Bracket Games
- Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick’em
- Poolhost College Bracket Challenge
- Run Your Pool Basketball Brackets
Most of the March Madness websites give you an option to print out brackets or use fill them out online or on your phone. You can also print out your own printable march madness brackets.
March Madness Bracket Prizes
- 1st place chooses a local activity for our family to do together (examples include bowling, mini-golf, going to the movies, trampoline park, zoo, museum, etc.)
- 2nd place chooses a local restaurant that we will visit as a family.
- 3rd place chooses a local spot for dessert to wrap up our family adventure.
The Real Reward
Our family bracket challenge is about more than just basketball and, as much as I love basketball, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Do you participate in the March Madness brackets? If so, what is your strategy for picking teams? Let us know in the comments below!
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1 comment
I love this. This has always been something we’ve done together as a family as well. When our kids were younger (or for our dog), we would either pick all top seeds or pick based on species of mascot, alphabetical, etc. Those made for some fun (and surprising) results. For those of us that are older, we’ll usually pick our own, based on a minimal research.
Our winner has sometimes picked a victory meal or dessert or things like that. We’ve typically used an online bracket contest to calculate everything just because it made it easier.