When Is March Madness 2015? Key Dates, Schedules, Times For NCAA Tournament

Karl-Anthony Towns Kentucky 2015 — Karl-Anthony Towns, left, and the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats begin their run for the 2015 national championship on March 19 or 20. Reuters

After all the conference tournaments wrap up and the 36 at-large bids are named on Selection Sunday, the 2015 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, better known as "March Madness," will commence.

The total number of teams vying for the 2015 national championship will start at 68, and whittle down over the next three weeks until the title game on Monday, April 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. As usual, the teams will be split up into four regions, East, Midwest, South and West.

The final four-region bracket, along with each teams’ seeding, will be announced Sunday, and the first official round begins Tuesday March 17 and Wednesday March 18 at UD Arena in Dayton, Ohio. In the last few years, the first round has decided which four teams will advance to the main brackets as the No. 16 seeds in each region to face the No. 1 seed in the second round.

This year, the No. 1 seeds are likely to be the undefeated and top-ranked Kentucky Wildcats, the No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers, and the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils, with the No. 5 Arizona Wildcats, No. 3 Virginia Cavaliers and No. 4 Villanova Wildcats battling it out for the last top seed.

When the second round and first full weekend of the tournament begins Thursday, March 19, 64 teams will be slimmed down once again to 16 after the final whistle on Sunday, March 22.

Below is a full schedule with dates for each round of the tournament, along with locations for each game.

Schedule

First Round

March 17 and 18

UD Arena, Dayton, Ohio

Second and Third Rounds

March 19 and 21

Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida

KFC Yum! Center in Louisville

Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh

Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon

March 20 and 22