March Madness 2022: Dates, Locations, Schedule For NCAA Tournament

Sixty-eight teams make the NCAA Tournament bracket, but only one school will be left standing in less than three weeks. The March Madness 2022 schedule will feature 67 games in 14 different locations over the course of 20 days.

The official start date of the 2022 NCAA Tournament is Tuesday, March 15. The tournament’s “First Four” games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio. Those contests will cut the bracket from 68 to 64 teams, setting up the first weekend of March Madness.

The first round of March Madness is scheduled for Thursday, March 17 and Friday, March 18. With games across eight different locations, the field will be cut in half to 32 teams in two days.

Those same venues will host the second-round games on Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20. By the end of Sunday’s games, only 16 teams will remain in the NCAA Tournament.

Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Greenville, South Carolina, and Buffalo, New York, will host first- and second-round games. Fort Worth, Texas, Portland, Oregon, Milwaukee and San Diego are also scheduled to host games before the Sweet Sixteen.

The teams that survive the first weekend get a few days of rest until the Sweet Sixteen starts. Eight games will be played from March 24-25, once again cutting the field in half. The Elite Eight is scheduled for March 26-27.

The entire second week of March Madness will take place in San Antonio, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.

The NCAA Tournament culminates with the Final Four at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. The remaining teams will compete on Saturday, April 2. The winners will vie for the national championship on Monday, April 4.

Baylor won the 2021 national championship. The last school to win consecutive college basketball titles was Florida in 2006 and 2007.