We’re down to the final 16 teams left in the 2024 NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. With March Madness heating up, here’s a look at the best way that hoops fans can watch Sweet 16, Elite 8 and more games for free. That includes a list of the best streaming services that have free trials, or promotional deals, for new customers looking to avoid paying for cable.
• You can watch every Sweet 16 game of March Madness live for free with DirecTV Stream (free trial), or watch the entire men’s basketball tournament on the cheap with Sling (promotional offers, cheapest streaming plans) paired with an HDTV antennae, if you don’t have one already.
Where can I watch the 2024 NCAA Tournament for free? What networks or TV Channels is March Madness on?
Most NCAA Tournament games from the Sweet 16 through the national championship game will be airing on Turner networks including channels like TNT, TBS and TruTV and a few games on your local CBS affiliate TV station. The Final Four and national championship game will air on TBS. You can find out more about which channels CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV are on in your area by using the channel finders here: Comcast Xfinity, DIRECTV, Dish, Verizon Fios, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice.
If you want to watch games for free, you can watch every game being broadcast locally on your CBS affiliate (channel finder above) with the help of an over-the-air HDTV antenna. If you need to get one now, this SanDisk brand HDTV antenna is currently the top selling HDTV antenna product on Amazon. It goes for under $30 and ships in one day if you have Amazon Prime. If you don’t have it already, sign up for a Prime free trial. After you get the antenna set up on your TV, you can watch the Super Bowl for free, as well as any major events going forward that happen on channels like ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and more.
Where can I stream the NCAA Tournament live for free without cable? Which service is best?
• There is only one streaming service that will have every game of the tournament, which is DirecTV Stream. It has a seven-day free trial and is the best service to sign up with for college hoops this month since it carries all of the channels that will broadcast men’s NCAA tournament games this month. With this option, you can at least watch every game of Rounds 1 and 2 for free and then decide if it’s worth paying for one month of access to watch the rest of the tournament.
• The second best option for watching the men’s NCAA tournament is Sling, which is running a half-off your first month promotional offer and has the cheapest overall streaming plans. However, if you go this route, you will need to purchase an HDTV antennae if you don’t have one already. This way, you won’t miss the games being broadcast on CBS, which is not included in the Sling streaming service.
When does the Final Four happen? What is the schedule of games?
The official NCAA men’s basketball tournament resumes starting on Thursday, March 28 at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET. Here’s a look at the complete schedule for the rest of the tournament.
- Sweet 16: March 28-29
- Elite Eight: March 30-31
- Final Four: Saturday, April 6
- NCAA championship game: Monday, April 8
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