When does March Madness 2024 start? Tipoff dates for men’s & women’s tournaments, NIT

It's almost March, and there is no sweeter time to be a college basketball fan.

Take a trip back to the 2016 NCAA National Championship. Villanova performed well to make it this far, but they are facing a North Carolina team that has been bigger and stronger than anyone else in the tournament. At this point, that doesn't matter. The game is tied. There are less than five seconds left on the clock. Tens of thousands of spectators are in an uproar. Villanova's Ryan Arcidiacono inbounds the ball and dribbles up the court. Each second gets heavier with the weight of finality. There are just three seconds left as Arcidiacono makes it to half-court. Two seconds left. He hasn't even made it to the three-point arc. The crowd is deafening. Facing a double team near the top of the key, Arcidiacono tosses the ball to teammate Kris Jenkins, who has been trailing the play. One second left. No time to think. Jenkins sets his feet and fires just before the buzzer sounds. As the ball arches toward the basket, the arena — a cacophony of noise just a moment earlier — is suspended in breathless silence. Then, the ball swishes through the net — a perfect shot at the perfect moment. In a blur of emotions, Villanova storms the court as confetti cannons erupt.

Those are the type of moments that make March Madness so maddening and so captivating. Every year, millions of people fill out a bracket for the NCAA tournament. So far, nobody has gotten a verifiably perfect bracket. It's theoretically possible, but highly improbable. For someone who knows a little bit about basketball, the odds of creating the perfect bracket are one in 120.2 billion. Then again, March Madness is all about defying the odds.

You can find the dates for the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament and 2024 National Invitation Tournament below.

NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Schedule

The 68-team bracket for the 2024 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament will be announced on Sunday, March 17. The Final Four and championship game will hosted at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The title game will take place on Monday, April 8.

Women's Basketball Tournament Schedule

Is Caitlin Clark inevitable? Clark led the Hawkeyes to a victory when the star guard officially set the record for most points scored all-time in NCAA women's basketball. As Clark sets her eyes on leading Iowa to its first-ever NCAA championship, she may just be the most intriguing player to watch during March Madness.

The 68-team bracket for the 2024 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament will be announced at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 17 on ESPN. The Final Four and championship game will hosted at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio. The championship game will take place on Sunday, April 7 at 3 p.m. ET.

Schedule for National Invitation Tournament

The 2024 Men's National Invitation Tournament bracket will be revealed at 9:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 17. Games begin with the first round on Tuesday, March 19. The semifinals and championship will be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on April 2 and 4.

This year also marks the inaugural year of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament, which will feature a 32-team bracket. The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 3.