March Madness 2017: Men's Bracket Release Info, Full Tournament Schedule

Parity is a defining characteristic of March Madness, and the 2017 NCAA tournament appears primed for plenty of wild upsets and surprises as Selection Sunday nears.

While nobody should be holding their breath for a 16th seed to down a top seed, the difference between the upper-tier teams and the rest of the field is not too large. No group of teams have emerged as clearly elite, which means several brackets will be busted early in the next few weeks.

Let's take a look at the schedule for the bracket’s unveiling, along with the tournament slate. The tournament games will be shown on CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV.

Date	Start Time (ET)	Network	Live Stream
Sunday, March 12	5:30 p.m.	CBS	CBSSports.com

Round	Dates
First Four	March 14-15
First	March 16-17
Second	March 18-19
Sweet Sixteen	March 23-24
Elite Eight	March 25-26
Final Four	April 1
National Championship	April 3

For the first time ever, the NCAA selection committee released an early preview of the bracket. This was done by revealing the top four seeds in each region on Feb. 11, roughly a month before Selection Sunday. 

The Big Ten proved to be a loser when this reveal came out, as the conference landed zero teams within the field of 16. This was despite a Wisconsin team that, at the time, ranked No. 7 in the Associated Press Top 25 and a Purdue squad that was No. 16. 

CBS Sports bracket analyst Jerry Palm noted on the release program (via Chris Solari of the Detroit Free Press) that, despite its excellent depth, the Big Ten failed to establish itself outside of its own league.

“One of the reasons why you didn’t see any Big Ten teams in that top 16 is because, as a league, they didn’t get the job done outside the conference.” Palm said. “That’s why the Big Ten, they may have a lot of teams, but a high seed is probably not realistic.”

Indiana, which finished 10th in the conference, holds the league's two best non-Big Ten wins against Kansas and North Carolina. However, the Hoosiers sit at 17-14 and look to have no real shot of cracking the NCAA field. Meanwhile, there were blemishes for the league, with Purdue missing a chance to knock off Villanova at home and Maryland losing convincingly to lowly Pittsburgh in College Park.

Given how well Purdue has played in the last month, which was capped off with a conference title, it would be hard to imagine the committee denying the Boilermakers a top-four seed. The team is a Final Four threat due to its rugged defense and inside-out game anchored by potential Wooden Award winner Caleb Swanigan, who is making history this season:

Speaking of Villanova, the Wildcats are playing phenomenal basketball once again this season, and they very well could repeat in April.

Villanova opened as the tournament's overall top seed in the February preview, and the Wildcats have continued to roll as they have only dropped a home contest with Butler since. Josh Hart is also a National Player of the Year candidate by averaging 18.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists for the 28-3 Wildcats, leading the team to some impressive numbers, per CBS Sports' Gary Parrish:

With the added experience of key guys like Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson and Kris Jenkins, expect Villanova to retain a No. 1 seed and make a deep tournament run this season.

Looking for a small school to rally behind in this tournament? Then Northern Kentucky is your squad.

The Norseman won the Horizon League tournament on Tuesday to put them into the tournament for the first time in school history. The berth also had some historical context, per Fox19 in Cincinnati's Jeremy Rauch:

Northern Kentucky can also play some ball. The team finished 24-10 on the season, and it also showed some might in the nonconference slate by leading 33-31 at Illinois earlier in the year before losing 79-64.

Drew McDonald is a matchup problem at forward, averaging 16.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per contest. He also shoots 39 percent from three, and the Norsemen possesses three players hitting at least 37.5 percent from long range.

Depending on its seed, Northern Kentucky could destroy some brackets with a major upset. Keep an eye on the squad when the field of 68 is released on Sunday.

Statistics are courtesy of NCAA.com unless otherwise noted.