Selection Sunday 2025: Everything you need to know about the March Madness bracket reveal

Before brackets are filled out, before they are busted, before the Cinderellas are crowned, before the buzzer beaters, before the heartbreak and before the madness, there is Selection Sunday. Before all of the shining moments of March Madness, the top men’s and women’s college basketball teams gather and wait to see where the NCAA Selection Committee will place them in the NCAA Tournament bracket.

On Sunday, March 16, the best players in the nation will get one step closer to completing their childhood dreams of cutting down the nets on college basketball’s biggest stage. The 68 teams that will comprise the field in both the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament will be chosen.

In fact, that is not entirely accurate. Thirty-one teams will have qualified automatically by winning their conference tournaments. The rest will be chosen by the committee based on record, strength of schedule, quality wins, head-to-head results, talent and more.

The teams are seeded 1-16 in four sections of a bracket. Eight teams will have to play one extra game in order to qualify for the Round of 64. From there, it is a game of survive and advance. Win one game, and it’s on to the Round of 32. Win another and advance to the Sweet 16. Teams that win a third advance to the Elite Eight, where they fight for a spot in the hallowed Final Four, which will be hosted this year for the men at the Alamodome in San Antonio and for the women at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.

No. 1 seeds

There are three practical locks for No. 1 seeds in the men’s bracket: Duke, Auburn and Houston, the regular season champions of the ACC, SEC and Big 12, respectively. The fourth top seed is currently projected by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi to be Florida, but that could change as the remaining conference tournaments play out. Florida is currently in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Other teams in contention are Tennessee and Alabama, as the SEC is widely seen as the strongest conference.

One major shift in the landscape happened in Duke’s ACC Tournament game against Georgia Tech, when projected No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Cooper Flagg was brought off the court in a wheelchair after suffering an ankle injury. His status for the NCAA Tournament is currently unknown.

On the women’s side, South Carolina, USC, UCLA and Texas are projected as the top seeds, but UConn could make a push as many analysts point to strength of schedule and quality wins tilting in their favor.

The bubble

As of now, Joe Lunardi projects the last four men’s teams in the tournament to be San Diego State, North Carolina, Xavier and Texas. The first four teams out of the field are projected to be Boise State, Indiana, Colorado State and Dayton. Of these teams, North Carolina, Texas, Boise State, Colorado State and Dayton still have a chance to qualify automatically by winning their conference tournaments.

Notably, Boise State defeated San Diego State in the Mountain West Tournament, which possibly means the Broncos could leapfrog the Aztecs if they keep winning. However, San Diego State has one of the best wins of the regular season to bolster its resume, as they beat projected No. 1 seed Houston. Classic rivals North Carolina and Duke will face off in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament on Friday night.

For the women, ESPN projects Iowa State, Washington, Princeton and Harvard as the last four teams to make the cut, and Virginia Tech, St. Joseph’s, James Madison and UNLV as the first four out.

When and where to watch Selection Sunday

A Selection Sunday special will be broadcast on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET for the men on CBS Sports and 8 p.m. ET for the women on ESPN. In the past, the women’s selection show took place on Monday, but with the addition of four extra teams to the women’s tournament four years ago, the bracket reveal was pushed up to accommodate the extra games.