Selection Sunday 2024: NCAA bracket announcement time, how to watch and stream

For the second straight year, Philadelphia basketball fans will see a familiar face on this year’s men’s NCAA selection Sunday show.

Former Villanova head coach Jay Wright, in his second season as a college basketball analyst for CBS, will return as a bracket analyst during tonight’s NCAA men’s basketball championship selection show, which will air live at 6 p.m. Eastern on CBS.

Joining Wright on CBS tonight to break down this year’s March Madness bracket will be first time host Adam Zucker, who is taking over for longtime host Greg Gumbel as he deals with family health issues, according to The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch. Clark Kellogg and Seth Davis will also be on hand to analyze this year’s March Madness bracket.

This is the 13th year CBS and Warner Bros. Discover Sports (previously Turner Sports) have partnered to cover the men’s basketball tournament. This year, TNT will air both the Final Four and the championship game. Veteran play-by-play announcer Ian Eagle will call both for the first time, replacing Jim Nantz, who retired from college basketball telecasts after last year’s tournament.

Meanwhile, ESPN will air the women’s NCAA selection Sunday show at 8 p.m. Elle Duncan will host the network’s coverage, joined by analysts Rebecca Lobo, Carolyn Peck, Andraya Carter, and bracketologist Charlie Creme.

Not to sound like Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Temple is the city’s final hope.

The Owls entered the American Athletic Conference tournament as the No. 11 seed, thanks in part to a 10-game losing streak. Now, thanks to an unlikely tournament run and an upset win over No. 2 Florida Atlantic Saturday night, Temple is playing in the championship game against No. 4 seed Alabama-Birmingham Sunday at 3 p.m. on ESPN. A win and Temple will return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019.

Over on the Main Line, Villanova was eliminated from the Big East Tournament by Marquette Thursday night, and now must wait to see if they’ll sneak into the tournament with an unlikely at-large bid. At the very least, the Wildcats’ “strength of schedule and predictive numbers are enough to leave Kyle Neptune’s squad in the ‘waiting game,’” writes The Athletic’s Justin Williams. But as my colleague Jeff Neiburg wrote, it would take “some sort of divine intervention from the Augustinians” for Villanova to advance.

St. Joseph’s also had a shot at landing an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, but their loss in the A-10 tournament Saturday against VCU all-but shut the door on their first March Madness appearance since 2016. La Salle and Drexel will also be watching this year’s tournament from home.

As for the women’s side, Drexel will face top-seeded Stony Brook in the Coastal Athletic Association tournament championship game Sunday, with the winner landing the conference’s only NCAA Tournament bid.

Both Villanova and St. Joseph’s are on the bubble but not projected to make the tournament, according to Charlie Creme. Penn kept things close, but their loss to Princeton in the Ivy League semifinals cut off their only path to the tournament.

Temple’s women’s squad had a major turnaround this season, but lost to Rice in the American Athletic Conference semifinals and won’t advance to the NCAA tournament.

Both men’s and women’s teams can make it into their respective NCAA basketball tournament in two ways — an automatic bid and an at-large bid.

Thirty-two teams receive automatic bids by winning their Division I conference tournament. Several conferences will hold their championship games Sunday.

The remaining 36 teams are picked by a 10-member selection committee after every conference tournament game has been played.

After the teams are selected, NCAA says the committee “endeavors to achieve reasonable competitive balance in each region of the bracket.”