Selection Sunday Set for March 15: March Madness Bracket 2026 to Air on CBS and ESPN
The NCAA will reveal the 68-team fields for its men's and women's Division I tournaments on Selection Sunday, March 15. The march madness bracket 2026 will be unveiled during two live network shows: the men's bracket at 6 p. m. ET on CBS and the women's bracket at 8 p. m. ET on.
How March Madness Bracket 2026 Will Be Released on Selection Sunday
On March 15 the NCAA will present the full 68-team brackets for both tournaments in live selection shows. The men's bracket announcement is scheduled for 6 p. m. Eastern Time on CBS, followed by the women's announcement at 8 p. m. Eastern Time on. Those timings establish a clear timeline for when matchups, seedings and the full tournament fields will become public.
Because the selection shows are timed and network-specific, viewers will receive the official tournament fields at fixed moments: the men's bracket at 6: 00 p. m. ET and the women's bracket at 8: 00 p. m. ET. This sequencing concentrates the release of bracket information into two prime-time windows, creating a single-night focal point for fans, teams and media covering the tournaments.
NCAA's 68-team Brackets and Broadcast Assignments
The NCAA's prepared 68-team bracket format applies to both the men's and the women's Division I tournaments. The decision to present each field on national television assigns responsibility for the men's announcement to CBS and the women's announcement to. That division of broadcasts means each network will host the official reveal for one of the two major college basketball tournaments on the same evening.
Concrete elements of the schedule are straightforward: one date, one night, two network windows. March 15 serves as the single point when both tournament fields are made public, and the 68-team structure defines the size and scope of each reveal. The effect is immediate: teams, conference officials and broadcasters will work from the exact bracket information released at those scheduled times.
What makes this notable is the synchronization of the men's and women's bracket announcements on the same calendar day and the clear separation of their broadcast homes. That alignment concentrates attention and sets a predictable rhythm for newsrooms, tournament organizers and viewers preparing for the postseason.
CBS and Time Slots Shape Selection Sunday Coverage
The assignment of the 6 p. m. ET slot on CBS to the men's bracket and the 8 p. m. ET slot on to the women's bracket determines when the official fields will become available to the public. Those fixed broadcast times will drive the immediate flow of information: bracket reveal, matchup confirmations and any subsequent adjustments tied to the announced fields will follow the network airings.
By setting those windows, the NCAA has created a concise, measurable schedule for the release of tournament fields. March 15 is now the anchor date for official bracket information. For anyone tracking matchups or awaiting the march madness bracket 2026, the timetable is unambiguous: CBS at 6 p. m. ET for the men's bracket and at 8 p. m. ET for the women's bracket.
With the selection shows slated for those times, the focus will shift quickly from selection day logistics to the brackets themselves, once the networks have completed their respective announcements.
