March Madness 2021: How To Watch and Which Brands To Expect

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by | Mar 8, 2021 | Homepage, Trending | 0 comments

After a rare hiatus, March Madness is back in 2021! This past year, the NCAA made the decision to cancel the 2020 men’s basketball tournament amid health concerns about the spreading of COVID-19. This was the first time that the NCAA tournament was not held since 1937. This year, however, the tournament will go on.

Where will the games be held?

March Madness will be a little different this time around. Instead of having the tournament hosted in multiple cities, the NCAA has chosen to host the tournament entirely in the Indianapolis area. There will be 2 courts inside the Lucas Oil Stadium (home of the Indianapolis Colts). There will also be games held at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse (Indiana Pacers), Mackey Arena (Purdue Boilermakers), Hinkle Fieldhouse (Butler Bulldogs), Indiana Farmers Coliseum (IUPUI Jaguars), and the Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (Indiana Hoosiers). 

Schedule and how to watch

Below is the schedule for the tournament and how each game can be viewed:

  • Selection Show – Sunday, March 14th @ 6:00 p.m. ET (CBS, Paramount+, and fuboTV)
  • First Four – Thursday, March 18th @ 4:00 p.m. ET (TBS, truTV, and NCAA March Madness Live)
  • First Round – Friday, March 19th and Saturday, March 20th @ 12 p.m. ET (CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV, NCAA March Madness Live, Paramount+, and fuboTV)
  • Second Round – Sunday, March 21st and Monday, March 22nd @ 12 p.m. ET (CBS, TBS, TNT, truTV, NCAA March Madness Live, Paramount+, and fuboTV)
  • Sweet 16 – Saturday, March 27th @ 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET and Sunday, March 28th @ 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET (CBS, TBS, NCAA March Madness Live, Paramount+, and fuboTV)
  • Elite Eight – Monday, March 29th @ 7 p.m. ET and Tuesday, March 30th @ 6 p.m. ET (CBS, TBS, NCAA March Madness Live, Paramount+, and fuboTV)
  • Final Four – Saturday, April 3rd @ 5 p.m. ET (CBS, NCAA March Madness Live, Paramount+, and fuboTV)
  • National Championship – Monday, April 15th @ 9 p.m. (CBS, NCAA March Madness Live, Paramount+, and fuboTV)

You can also find CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV on a variety of premium streaming platforms such as YouTubeTV, Hulu Plus Live TV, and AT&T TV. However, these services require a monthly subscription.

Brands to look out for

Starting in 1984, sponsors for the NCAA have been selected as a part of the NCAA Corporate Champions and Partners Program. Turner Sports and CBS Sports have exclusive rights in licensing and negotiating corporate champions and partners.

The NCAA divides its sponsors into two tiers: corporate champions and corporate partners. The corporate champions tier is reserved for the NCAA’s top three sponsors, which include AT&T, Capital One, and Coca-Cola. These brands will be the most prominent names at the tournament and will have exclusive promotion rights. All three of these brands will be tri-presenting the NCAA March Madness Live platform. This will include features such as the Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge, The Catch Up presented by AT&T 5G, and Fast Break presented by AT&T 5G and Nissan. The ios app for NCAA March Madness Live will be sponsored by Coca-Cola, Capital One, and Buick. The Android app will be sponsored by AT&T 5G, Capital One, and Nissan. The Roku app will be sponsored by AT&T 5G and Capital One. The Apple TV App will be sponsored by AT&T 5G. Invesco will sponsor the Google TV app. AT&T 5G, Coca-Cola, and POWERADE will sponsor the Xbox app.

Other sponsors, included in the NCAA’s corporate partners tier, that you can expect to see at the tournament include Aflac, Buffalo Wild Wings, Buick, GEICO, Great Clips, Invesco, Lowe’s, Marriott Bonvoy, Nabisco, Nissan, Pizza Hut, Reese’s, Uber Eats, Unilever, and Wendy’s.

Are you excited for March Madness this year? How do you plan on streaming the games? Which sponsors are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below!

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