2021 NCAA Tournament Round 1: Time, Channel and How to Watch

March Madness is here. After being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA Tournament is back, and basketball fans will be able to watch games all day on multiple channels. The action starts at 12:15 p.m. ET Friday and 16 games will take place in Indianapolis. Round 1 action will continue on Saturday and will begin at the same time.

CBS will air four games on Friday starting at 12:15 p.m. ET. The second game will be at 3 p.m. and will then another CBS game will air at 7:10 p.m. The network will end the night with a 9:40 p.m. tipoff of Syracuse vs. San Deigo State. On Friday at 12:45 p.m., truTV will kick off its broadcast with Colgate vs. Arkansas. TruTV will then air another game at 3:30 p.m., which will then followed by another contest at 7:15 p.m. The final game on truTV Friday will start at 9:50 p.m with Morehead State taking on West Virginia.

Meanwhile, TBS will start airing games at 1:15 p.m. with Eastern Washington vs. Kansas. Another game on the network will air at 4 p.m. and then at 6:25 p.m. And at 9:20 p.m., Rutgers will battle Clemson on TBS. TNT, the sister station to TBS, is getting in on the college basketball fun starting at 1:45 p.m with Utah State vs. Texas Tech. The network will then air another game at 4 p.m., which will be followed by a 7:25 matchup. TNT's final game of the night will air at 9:57 p.m. as Villanova will battle Winthrop.

Round 1 action will continue on Saturday, and the networks will follow the same broadcast schedule they did on Friday. The No. 1 team in the country, Gonzaga, will be in action that day, taking on Norfolk State at 9:20 p.m. on TBS. Michigan is another team to watch in the tournament and will face Texas Southern on TBS at 3 p.m.

Round 2 of the tournament will begin on Sunday. The times for the two rounds haven't been set, but the four networks that aired games in Round 1 will also cover the round 2 matchups. The Sweet 16 part of the tournament will take place on March 27 and March 28 while the Elite Eight will be on March 29 and March 30. The Final Four will happen on Saturday, April 3 at 5 p.m., while the National Championship game is set for April 5 at 9 p.m. The Final Four and National Championship games will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium and will air on CBS.

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