Sports Interaction
Sports Interaction

2026 March Madness Schedule, Betting Odds: Everything you need to know about the Men’s NCAA Tournament

With Selection Sunday behind us, the 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament bracket is officially set.

This year’s tournament tips-off with the First Four on March 17 in Dayton, Ohio, before closing out with the national title game on April 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Duke, Arizona, Michigan and defending national champion Florida are the No. 1-seeds, with the Blue Devils entering as the tournament favourite.

Here’s everything you need to know about March Madness and the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

2026 March Madness favourites

Duke is the top overall seed in the tournament and they enter as +300 favourites to win the national championship on the March Madness futures board.

Despite being the third overall seed, Michigan has the second-shortest tournament odds at +350. Oddsmakers are slighting No. 2 overall seed Arizona, who sit at +400.

However, Florida has the biggest reason to have a chip on their shoulder as the defending national champions have the longest odds of all the 1-seeds at +650.

Finish strong

Even with a season full of data to rely on, a school’s performance in conference tournaments can impact their seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan’s loss to Purdue in the Big Ten championship dropped them from the No. 2 overall seed to the No. 3 overall seed. Purdue went the opposite direction, jumping from a 3-seed to a 2-seed.

At the opposite end of the bracket, Miami (Ohio) blew a perfect regular season record with a loss in the MAC Tournament. The RedHawks now have to go through SMU in the First Four, with the winner claiming the 11-seed in the Midwest region.

March Madness schedule

Here’s how the full schedule for the tournament breaks down:

  • First Four: March 17-18 (Dayton, Ohio)
  • First Round: March 19-20
  • Second Round: March 21-22
  • Sweet 16: March 26-27
  • Elite Eight: March 28-29
  • Final Four: April 4 (Indianapolis, Indiana)
  • Championship: April 6 (Indianapolis, Indiana

Potential Cinderella teams

If you’re looking purely at seeding, you might want to circle the 12 vs. 5 matchups. At least one 12-seed has knocked out a 5-seed at 34 of the last 40 tournaments, including McNeese beating Clemson and Colorado State beating Memphis last year.

McNeese (vs. Vanderbilt) is once again a 12-seed this year, along with Northern Iowa (vs. St. John’s), High Point (vs. Wisconsin) and Akron (vs. Texas Tech).