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March Madness returns this year with all the chaos, drama and bracket-busting unpredictability that has made it part of America’s sports culture for decades.
The 2026 men’s NCAA tournament begins March 17 and runs through April 6. Sixty-eight teams will battle through the familiar gauntlet: the First Four is in Dayton, Ohio, with ensuing rounds held across the country, from Buffalo, N.Y., to San Diego, Calif. This year’s Final Four and National Championship Game take place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Selection Sunday on March 15 will lock in the 31 automatic qualifiers and 37 at-large teams, setting off the annual nationwide scramble to fill out brackets.
A handful of clear favorites headline the field. Early Bracketology projections at press time list Michigan as the top overall seed, while other analysts highlight Purdue, UConn, Houston, Kansas, Duke and Gonzaga among the leading contenders. Prediction models favor Arizona as the statistical favorite.
The tournament’s beginnings stretch back to 1939, when just eight teams competed in the inaugural event. Over time, the field expanded and the spectacle grew, fueled by unforgettable buzzer-beaters and the rise of March Madness culture as a shared national ritual. Today’s 68-team format, adopted in 2011, added even more opportunity for mid-majors.
This year’s edition caps a season that tipped off Nov. 3, 2025, with Purdue entering as the preseason No. 1. Parity across major conferences means there will be plenty of intrigue leading up to the Final Four.