CBS News
See the full March Madness schedule for 2024 NCAA tournament games
Tyler Schank/NCAA Photos via Getty Images
Welcome to March Madness 2024. College basketball’s big dance is finally here and so is a slate of terrific matchups. While UConn attempts to win back-to-back national championships, top seeds like Houston, North Carolina and Purdue aim to dethrone them.
March Madness is known for its Cinderella stories and shocking upsets, making every game of the NCAA tournament a must-see game. If you’re all in, you’ll need to know when and how to watch each game of the tournament. We’ve got you covered. Keep reading for the full 2024 men’s college basketball NCAA tournament schedule.
CBS Essentials, CBS and Paramount+ are all subsidiaries of Paramount. CBS is one of the broadcast homes of the 2024 men’s March Madness tournament.
When is March Madness 2024?
The 2024 NCAA men’s college basketball tournament is being played from March 19, 2024 through April 8, 2024.
First Four dates and scores
The First Four games were played from March 19 through March 20, 2024. All games were played at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, OH.
First Four winners: March 19, 2024
Below are the men’s First Four matchups and scores for Tuesday, March 19, 2024.
Tuesday, March 19 (First Four)
First Four winners: March 20, 2024
Below are the men’s First Four matchups and scores for Wednesday, March 20, 2024.
Wednesday, March 20 (First Four)
March Madness 2024: First round
The NCAA March Madness Round of 64 begins on Thursday, March 21, 2024 with the Mississippi State vs. Michigan State game and ends on Friday, March 22, 2024.
March Madness first round: Thursday, March 21 game times and network
Below are the game times, matchups and networks airing each men’s March Madness game on Thursday, March 21, 2024. All times Eastern.
March Madness first round: Friday, March 22 game times and network
Below are the game times, matchups and networks airing each first-round men’s March Madness game on Friday, March 22, 2024. All times Eastern.
March Madness 2024: Second round schedule
The NCAA March Madness Round of 32 begins on Saturday, March 23, 2024 and ends on Sunday, March 24, 2024. The teams that will play will be decided in the Round of 64 games.
March Madness 2024: Sweet 16 games schedule
The Round of 16 will be played Thursday, March 28, 2024 through Friday, March 29, 2024.
March Madness 2024: Elite 8 games schedule
The Elite 8 games will be played from Saturday, March 30, 2024 through Sunday, March 31, 2024.
March Madness 2024: Final Four games schedule
The Final Four will be played on Saturday, April 6, 2024. The games will be played at State Farm Stadium in Phoenix, AZ.
March Madness 2024: NCAA Tournament Championship Game
The NCAA Tournament Championship Game will be played on Monday, April 8, 2024. The game will be played at State Farm Stadium in Phoenix, AZ at 9:20 p.m. ET. The game will air on TBS.
How to watch March Madness 2024 without cable
If you’ve given up your cable subscription, or your cable provider doesn’t include the channels carrying March Madness this year, you can subscribe to one of the streaming or live TV platforms featured below.
How to watch March Madness 2024: Paramount+ with Showtime
Getty Images
CBS will play host to some of this year’s men’s March Madness games, which means Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers can stream CBS-aired men’s March Madness games live.
The streamer offers access to all college basketball games locally and nationally televised on CBS on all its subscription tiers. In addition, you can watch top-tier soccer like the Champions League live and SEC college football games, plus popular shows such as “Survivor” and “NCIS.”
A subscription to Paramount+ with Showtime is $11.99 per month. The streamer offers a seven-day free trial. (You won’t be able to stream men’s March Madness live with a Paramount+ Essential subscription.)
Stream March Madness: Paramount + with Showtime free on Amazon Prime Video
Paramount+ content, including men’s March Madness 2024, is available to stream on Amazon Prime via a Paramount+ on Prime Video add-on subscription. Prime Video also carries some of the best sports documentaries, including “Kelce,” which chronicles former Philadelphia Eagles star Jason Kelce’s last season in the league.
Amazon is offering a seven-day free trial of Paramount+ with Showtime. Tap the button below to start your trial and start streaming now for free. After the free trial period ends, a subscription to the Paramount+ with Showtime tier is $11.99 per month.
Hulu + Live TV/ESPN+ bundle: The one way to stream every March Madness game
You can watch March Madness 2024, including both the men’s and women’s tournaments, with the Hulu + Live TV/ESPN+ bundle. The bundle features 95 channels, including CBS, ESPN, TNT, TBS, ABC and TruTV, and includes the ESPN+ streaming service, so you’ll be able to watch every game of both tournaments. The women’s Final Four will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Unlimited DVR storage is also included. Watch every March Madness game on every network this season with Hulu + Live TV/ESPN+ bundle.
Hulu + Live TV comes bundled with ESPN+ and Disney+. It’s priced at $77.
Watch March Madness free with Fubo
If you’re new to streaming sports, you should know about Fubo. Fubo is a sports-centric streaming service that offers access to every March Madness game airing on network and cable TV, plus your local TV affiliates, hundreds of cable TV channels and 1,000 hours of cloud DVR storage. Another great reason to love Fubo is its lookback feature, which lets you watch sporting events up to 72 hours after they air live.
Start watching NCAA basketball on Fubo and also get access to network-aired NFL, NBA and MLB games by starting a seven-day free trial of Fubo. You can begin watching immediately on your TV, phone, tablet or computer. Fubo starts at $80/month for the Pro tier, which includes 199 channels, but the streamer is currently offering the first month for $60.
Note: Because Fubo doesn’t carry TruTV, TBS or TNT, you won’t be able to watch every game of the tournament with a FuboTV subscription. If you want one streaming platform to watch the entire tournament, you’ll need a subscription to Hulu + Live TV.
What you’ll get with Fubo Pro Tier:
- There are no contracts with Fubo — you can cancel at any time.
- The Pro tier includes 199 channels, so there’s something for everyone to enjoy.
- Fubo includes all the channels you’ll need to watch college and pro sports, including CBS.
- In addition to March Madness, Fubo offers NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS and international soccer games.
- All Fubo tiers come with 1,000 hours of cloud-based DVR recording.
- Stream on your TV, phone and mobile devices.
Save $40 on Sling TV: The most cost-effective way to stream March Madness 2024
If you don’t have cable TV that includes TNT, TBS and ESPN, one of the most cost-effective ways to stream March Madness games this year is through a subscription to Sling TV. The streamer offers access to your local network affiliate’s live feed (excluding CBS) and also includes the NFL Network and ESPN with its Orange tier plan. Also worth noting: Sling TV comes with 50 hours of cloud-based DVR recording space included, perfect for recording all the season’s top NFL matchups.
The Orange tier is normally $40 per month, but right now Sling TV is offering a pair of offers for new subscribers. You can choose to take $10 off your first month of service on any tier or save $40 when you prepay $120 for four months of the Sling TV Orange tier.
Note: Because some men’s March Madness 2024 will be broadcast on CBS, you won’t be able to watch all men’s March Madness 2024 games with a Sling TV subscription. If you’re looking to stream the men’s tournament, we suggest a subscription to one of the other platforms featured here.
Top features of Sling TV Orange tier:
- There are 32 channels to watch in total, including ESPN, TNT and TBS.
- You get access to most local NFL games and nationally broadcast games next season at the lowest price.
- All subscription tiers include 50 hours of cloud-based DVR storage.
ESPN+: How to watch the women’s Final Four
ESPN+ is ESPN’s subscription streaming platform. It offers exclusive live events, original studio shows and top-tier series that aren’t accessible on the ESPN networks. To watch the women’s Final Four, simply sign into the ESPN app. You’ll watch college basketball at no extra charge. You can stream ESPN+ through the ESPN app on your favorite mobile device and ESPN.com. It’s also available as an app through major smart TV streaming platforms and gaming consoles such as the PS5.
Keep in mind some blackouts will prohibit you from watching certain in-market games with ESPN+, even if they’re nationally televised. If you’re looking to avoid those blackouts, we suggest subscribing to the Hulu + Live TV/ESPN+ bundle featured above.
It is important to note that ESPN+ does not include access to the ESPN network. It is a separate sports-centric service, with separate sports programming.
An ESPN+ subscription costs $10.99 per month, or save 15% when you pay annually ($110). ESPN+ is also currently offering a cost-saving bundle. Get ESPN+ (with ads), Disney+ (with ads) and Hulu (with ads) for $14.99 per month.
Watch March Madness games live with a digital HDTV antenna
Amazon
You can also watch CBS and the network’s 2024 March Madness coverage on TV with an affordable indoor antenna, which pulls in local over-the-air HDTV channels. Here’s the kicker: There’s no monthly charge.
For anyone living in a partially blocked-off area (those near mountains or first-floor apartments), a digital TV antenna may not pick up a good signal — or any signal at all. But for many homes, a digital TV antenna provides a seriously inexpensive way to watch NASCAR without paying a cable company. Indoor TV antennas can also provide some much-needed TV backup if a storm knocks out your cable.
This amplified digital antenna with a 300-mile range can receive hundreds of HD TV channels, including NBC, ABC, Fox, PBS, Univision and more (depending on your location) and can filter out cellular and FM signals. It delivers a high-quality picture in 1080p HDTV and top-tier sound. It comes with an 18-foot digital coax cable.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a landmark bill aimed at establishing first-in-the-nation safety measures for large artificial intelligence models.
The decision is a major blow to efforts attempting to rein in the homegrown industry that is rapidly evolving with little oversight. The bill would have established some of the first regulations on large-scale AI models in the nation and paved the way for AI safety regulations across the country, supporters said.
Earlier this month, the Democratic governor told an audience at Dreamforce, an annual conference hosted by software giant Salesforce, that California must lead in regulating AI in the face of federal inaction but that the proposal “can have a chilling effect on the industry.”
The proposal, which drew fierce opposition from startups, tech giants and several Democratic House members, could have hurt the homegrown industry by establishing rigid requirements, Newsom said.
“While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data,” Newsom said in a statement. “Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it. I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology.”
Newsom on Sunday instead announced that the state will partner with several industry experts, including AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, to develop guardrails around powerful AI models. Li opposed the AI safety proposal.
The measure, aimed at reducing potential risks created by AI, would have required companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state’s electric grid or help build chemical weapons. Experts say those scenarios could be possible in the future as the industry continues to rapidly advance. It also would have provided whistleblower protections to workers.
The legislation is among a host of bills passed by the Legislature this year to regulate AI, fight deepfakes and protect workers. State lawmakers said California must take actions this year, citing hard lessons they learned from failing to rein in social media companies when they might have had a chance.
Proponents of the measure, including Elon Musk and Anthropic, said the proposal could have injected some levels of transparency and accountability around large-scale AI models, as developers and experts say they still don’t have a full understanding of how AI models behave and why.
The bill targeted systems that require more than $100 million to build. No current AI models have hit that threshold, but some experts said that could change within the next year.
“This is because of the massive investment scale-up within the industry,” said Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI researcher who resigned in April over what he saw as the company’s disregard for AI risks. “This is a crazy amount of power to have any private company control unaccountably, and it’s also incredibly risky.”
The United States is already behind Europe in regulating AI to limit risks. The California proposal wasn’t as comprehensive as regulations in Europe, but it would have been a good first step to set guardrails around the rapidly growing technology that is raising concerns about job loss, misinformation, invasions of privacy and automation bias, supporters said.
A number of leading AI companies last year voluntarily agreed to follow safeguards set by the White House, such as testing and sharing information about their models. The California bill would have mandated AI developers to follow requirements similar to those commitments, said the measure’s supporters.
But critics, including former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, argued that the bill would “kill California tech” and stifle innovation. It would have discouraged AI developers from investing in large models or sharing open-source software, they said.
Newsom’s decision to veto the bill marks another win in California for big tech companies and AI developers, many of whom spent the past year lobbying alongside the California Chamber of Commerce to sway the governor and lawmakers from advancing AI regulations.
Two other sweeping AI proposals, which also faced mounting opposition from the tech industry and others, died ahead of a legislative deadline last month. The bills would have required AI developers to label AI-generated content and ban discrimination from AI tools used to make employment decisions.
Some residents east of Atlanta were evacuated while others were told to shelter in place to avoid contact with a chemical plume after a fire at a chemical plant.
Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel told reporters that a sprinkler head malfunctioned around 5 a.m. Sunday at the BioLab plant in Conyers. That caused water to mix with a water-reactive chemical, which produced a plume of chemicals. The chief said she wasn’t sure what chemicals were included.
A small roof fire was initially contained, but reignited Sunday afternoon, Sheriff Eric Levett said in a video posted on Facebook as gray smoke billowed into the sky behind him. He said authorities were trying to get the fire under control and urged people to stay away from the area.
People in the northern part of Rockdale County were ordered to evacuate and others were told to shelter in place with windows and doors closed. Sheriff’s office spokesperson Christine Nesbitt did not know the number of people evacuated.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division were both on site, county Emergency Management Director Sharon Webb said. The agencies are monitoring the air “to give us more of an idea of what the plume consists of.”
McDaniel said crews were working on removing the chemical from the building, away from the water source. Once the product is contained, the situation will be assessed and officials will let residents know whether it is safe to return to their homes, she said.
An evacuation center was opened at Wolverine Gym in Covington.
Washington — Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off on Tuesday in the first and only vice presidential debate of the cycle, as the two candidates look to prop up the Republican and Democratic tickets with fewer than 40 days until Election Day.
The debate, hosted by CBS News at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, will be moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan.
Here’s what to know about how the candidates are preparing for the debate:
How JD Vance is preparing for the VP debate
The Ohio Republican has been preparing for the debate for more than a month, a source directly involved told CBS News, including with “murder board” sessions with a small team that includes Vance’s wife and his advisers, along with senior Trump adviser Jason Miller.
Among Vance’s main focuses during the preparation has been studying Walz’ debate style and policy record, the source said, noting that Vance will attempt to highlight what he sees as the Minnesota governor’s left-wing views during the debate.
Vance told reporters last week that his plan is to break down what the Trump-Vance administration would do to make “life better” and connect that to policy.
“So, we’re studying up as much as we can on the issues that matter to the American people, and I’m looking forward to it,” Vance said.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, is standing in for Walz during Vance’s debate prep, four sources familiar with the preparations told CBS News. Emmer and Walz have deep roots in Minnesota and are close in age.
Emmer told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he’s known Walz for decades and has spent the last month working to “get his phrases down, his mannerisms.”
“My job was to be able to play Tim Walz so JD Vance knows what he’s going to see,” Emmer said.
Getty Images
How Tim Walz is preparing for the VP debate
Walz has been preparing for the debate with a close team of advisers, a source familiar with the preparations told CBS News. Some of the people involved also helped Vice President Kamala Harris take on former President Donald Trump, among others, like a long-time aid to Walz who worked with him during his bids for governor.
For Walz, whose name recognition was until recently limited outside of Minnesota, the focus is on continuing to introduce himself to the American people, according to the source. He’ll also work to highlight Harris’ vision for the nation’s path forward.
“You’ll hear me talk like I have about things that impact Americans, making sure they have the opportunity to thrive, making sure that we’re being factual in how we talk about that,” Walz told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow of the debate earlier this month. “And so I’m looking forward to it. I’ll work hard, that’s what I do.”
During debate prep, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is standing in for Vance, a campaign official familiar with the preparation told CBS News. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also assisted Harris during her debate prep in 2020, and is close in age to Vance.
When and how to watch the presidential debate
Debate coverage on CBS News 24/7 begins at 4 p.m. ET, with the debate getting underway at 9 p.m. ET on Oct. 1.
The 90-minute debate will be streamed on CBS News 24/7 and Paramount+ across all available platforms and CBSNews.com. The debate will also be simulcast across other broadcast and cable networks.
,
,
and
contributed to this report.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes first-in-nation AI safety bill
Residents in Georgia ordered to evacuate or shelter in place after fire at chemical plant
Israeli airstrikes kill dozens across Lebanon as Hezbollah confirms a 7th top commander was killed
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes first-in-nation AI safety bill