NCAA Men's Tournament Bracket 2025: First Four, 1st Round Dates, Times, TV Schedule

Two National Championship Game participants from the last three years will help kick off the 2025 NCAA tournament.

The North Carolina Tar Heels and San Diego State Aztecs are among the eight teams headed to Dayton for the First Four on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The rest of the field will play their first-round games on Thursday and Friday across eight different regional sites.

The Creighton Bluejays and Louisville Cardinals start off first-round play on Thursday.

A pair of top seeds will play on Thursday and Friday. The Auburn Tigers and Houston Cougars are both in action on Thursday afternoon, while the Duke Blue Devils and Florida Gators play on Friday.

The full broadcast schedule can be found here on NCAA.com.

Click here to play the NCAA March Madness Men's Bracket Challenge.

North Carolina Headlines First Four

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North Carolina barely got into the field of 68 as the last team in.

The Tar Heels were sent to Dayton to play San Diego State on Tuesday night. It is the first First Four appearance for both programs.

The Texas Longhorns and Xavier Musketeers play in the battle of No. 11 seeds in Dayton on Thursday.

A pair of matchups between No. 16 seeds opens up each night of the First Four. The Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers are making their fourth First Four appearance. That is the most among the eight teams headed to Dayton.

The teams on court on Tuesday and Wednesday, especially the No. 11 seeds, should have your attention. At least one First Four winner has won an additional game in the NCAA tournament in all but one year since the First Four was introduced in 2011.

UNC or San Diego State has a potential path to the Sweet 16 since the No. 3 seed in the South Region, the Iowa State Cyclones, have dealt with injuries of late.

The Ole Miss Rebels await the UNC-SDSU winner, while the Illinois Fighting Illini take on the Texas-Xavier winner.

Duke and Auburn will have their first-round opponents determined by First Four matchups of No. 16 seeds.

Creighton, Louisville Kick Off First Round

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One of the best first-round matchups on paper kicks off the first-round schedule on Thursday afternoon.

The Creighton Bluejays and Louisville Cardinals both reached their conference tournament finals and they combined to win 51 games.

Although the game is on a neutral court, Louisville owns the advantage with the game being played in-state at Rupp Arena in Lexington. The Cardinals lost at Rupp Arena to Kentucky back on December 14.

Louisville should be a slight favorite in its first-round matchup because of its overall form throughout ACC play, where it only lost twice.

Creighton has one of the best big men in the country in Ryan Kalkbrenner.

Both teams could pose challenges to the Auburn Tigers, who enter the Big Dance with three losses in four games.

Auburn and Houston headline the Thursday afternoon action, Tennessee and St. John's are the top teams in action on Thursday night.

Alabama and Duke will part of Friday afternoon's games, while Florida, Kentucky and Michigan State play in the Friday night windows.