Selection Sunday 2016: Start Time, TV Coverage for Bracket Release Special

March Madness unofficially begins with Selection Sunday, when the 68-team NCAA tournament bracket will be set. 

The theme in college hoops this year has been parity, as no squad has convincingly emerged as the clear-cut team to beat. Even with the Kentucky Wildcats undefeated at this time last year, the Wisconsin Badgers and Duke Blue Devils were right behind them among the class of the field. 

Six teams have held the perch as No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 over the course of the 18-week season. The conference tournaments this week, which culminate Sunday, will lead into Selection Sunday. Once those champions are crowned, the NCAA selection committee will have a better gauge on how to seed the top teams.

Here is a Selection Sunday event guide and a look at the NCAA tournament schedule:

Date: Sunday, March 13

Time: 5:30 p.m. ET

TV: CBS

Live Stream: CBSSports.com Stream

Round	Dates	Location
First Four	March 15-16	Dayton, Ohio
First Round	March 17-18	Des Moines, Iowa; Raleigh, N.C.; Denver; Providence, R.I.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; St. Louis; Oklahoma City; Spokane, Wash.
Second Round	March 19-20	Des Moines, Iowa; Raleigh, N.C.; Denver; Providence, R.I.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; St. Louis; Oklahoma City; Spokane, Wash.
West Regional (Sweet 16, Elite Eight)	March 24, 26	Anaheim, Calif.
South Regional (Sweet 16, Elite Eight)	March 24, 26	Louisville, Ky.
Midwest Regional (Sweet 16, Elite Eight)	March 25, 27	Chicago
East Regional (Sweet 16, Elite Eight)	March 25, 27	Philadelphia
Final Four	April 2	Houston
National Championship	April 4	Houston

The 32 conference tournament champions each have an automatic berth, but it’s the 36 at-large bids up for grabs that make things interesting. 

The NCAA men’s basketball committee must make those selections before the seeding process begins. 

Each member of the 10-person committee fills out an initial ballot with an "at-large" or "under consideration" designation. Teams with at least eight "at-large" votes are automatically advanced to the tournament field. 

The committee will then select the top teams from the "under consideration" board through a detailed process outlined by the NCAA. 

Once the 68 teams are selected, the bracket is then built, with seedings intended to keep teams as equal as possible. But the tricky part comes when assigning them all to the four regions, particularly when attempting to prevent teams from the same conference from playing each other in the early rounds. 

If two teams have played each other three times—sometimes a case among top teams that meet in the conference tournaments—the bracket is designed to prevent those teams from meeting before the Elite Eight. 

That’s largely why a Duke-North Carolina matchup in the NCAA tournament has never occurred. 

Add the attempt to keep as many teams as possible to their closest region, and the committee is dealt another big challenge. There is some flexibility here, as the panel is permitted to move a team up or down one or two seeds in extraordinary circumstances. However, these are generally the lower-seeded squads. 

There’s a lot of information to digest as the Big Dance takes center stage, but there’s a reason it's referred to as March Madness. 

All selection information provided by the NCAA.