Once the dust settles from the Super Bowl, most American sports fans turn to following the run-up to college basketball’s March Madness. With the exception of following “Lin-Sanity” with New York Knicks basketball, most fans can’t wait to check out the 2012 March Madness TV schedule. 2012 will mark the second season that all of the March Madness games will be broadcast on television. The four networks covering the games for this year’s tournament include CBS, TBS, TNT, MML, and TruTV. Of course, we are also waiting to see if the NCAA is going to stream the games again through NCAA.com as well since watching over a smart phone was how I saw more than a few games last season!.
When Will the 2012 March Madness Brackets Be Announced?
Similar to past seasons, the 2012 March Madness Brackets will be announced during the 2012 CBS Selection Sunday Telecast. The show will start at 6:00 PM Eastern Time on March 11th, 2012 and commence after the last NCAA Conference Basketball Tournaments have concluded. Although a number of the qualifying teams will be known prior to the start of the show, the at-large bids, seeds, regions, and specific team matchups are kept close-hold by the NCAA until officially announced.
2012 March Madness TV Schedule
**All times listed are Eastern. Final broadcast schedule is subject to change based on the NCAA’s final March Madness schedule.
2012 First Four TV Schedule
2012 will mark the second season that the First Four opens up March Madness play. The four games, featuring 8 teams, will be played
Consumers have evolved from watching March Madness on a single TV to numerous viewing devices in the home and at work to include smart phones.
on March 13th and 14th and be broadcast on TruTV. The games will start at 6:30 and 9:00 PM Eastern Time. Unlike the legacy “Play-In” game, the First Four features a variety of competition of the lowest at-large and 16 seeds and brings the total number of teams to 68 for the 2012 NCAA Men’s basketball tournament.
2012 March Madness Second Round TV Schedule
The second round of the 2012 NCAA basketball tournament starts the “traditional” game play that college basketball fans are used to. Second round games are scheduled for March 15th and March 16th and will be shown on CBS or the Turner Network (and MML). Game times remain tentative until the final broadcast schedule is released by the NCAA, but we can expect that they will be staggered again this season. Game times will likely range from 12:00 PM to 9:55 PM Eastern Time. TruTV will broadcast the March Madness Tip-Off Show again this season with the times being set for 11 AM, 7PM, and 12:30 AM on both days of the second round.
2012 March Madness Third Round TV Schedule
The third round of the 2012 NCAA Basketball Tournament kicks off on Saturday March 17th and concludes on Sunday March 18th, 2012. We can expect two more days full of NCAA action with CBS and the Turner Network (and MML) covering all of the games. A slight change from the second round games sees TNT with a 5:00 PM Infiniti NCAA Tip Off show on both days and TBS showing Inside March Madness presented by Buick at midnight on both days. We can expect the game times to start at around 12:00 PM Eastern time and be staggered through 9:30 PM.
2012 March Madness Sweet 16 TV Schedule
The 2012 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen is scheduled to be played on Thursday and Friday, March 22nd and 23rd, 2012. The games will be broadcast on CBS or the Turner Network (and MML) and will be shown at 7:15 and 9:45 PM on both days (exact times will likely be toggled a bit by the NCAA). TBS will show the Infiniti NCAA Tip-Off show on both days at 6:00 PM and the Inside March Madness as presented by Buick at 12:30 am each night.
2012 March Madness Elite 8 TV Schedule
The Elite 8 sees CBS / MML broadcasting the remainder of the NCAA Tournament games. The Elite 8 is scheduled to take place on Saturday March 24th and Sunday March 25th, 2012. TruTV takes over the pre and post-game broadcasts again for this round of the tournament. The Infiniti Tip-Off show is scheduled for noon on Saturday and 1:00 PM on Sunday.
2012 March Madness Final Four Schedule
The 2012 Final Four sees TruTV showing the Infiniti NCAA Tip-Off program on 12:00 PM on Saturday, March 31st, 2012. The first game is scheduled to be played at 6:00 PM on CBS / MML and the second at 8:49 PM. The postgame show will air at 11:00 PM on CBS and will be followed on TruTV with Inside March Madness presented by Buick at 11:30 PM.
2012 March Madness Championship TV Schedule
The 2012 NCAA Tournament championship game will be shown on CBS at 9:00 PM. CBS will follow-up the game at 9:30 PM with the Championship Post-Game show at 11:30 PM.
