March Madness amid COVID: How will 2021 NCAA men’s basketball tournament be different?

© Provided by Yahoo! Sports March Madness is back after a one-year, COVID-infected hiatus. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

March Madness and the coronavirus. In 2020, the two couldn’t coexist. On March 12 of last year, one day after COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic, the NCAA canceled its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Hundreds of hoopers never played a college game again.

A year later, the pandemic lives on. But the Madness? It’s back – albeit in a slightly altered form.

The 2021 NCAA men’s basketball tournament will take place this month and next in a bubble-like atmosphere in Indiana. Crowds will be limited. The rhythms of March will feel a bit off. But the basketball will happen. Your bracket pool can resume. Here’s when, where, and how it will all go down.

When is Selection Sunday?

Selection Sunday is still Selection Sunday – March 14, specifically. At 6 p.m. ET, CBS will reveal the bracket for this year’s men’s tourney. It’s the following week where things get a little weird.

When does March Madness begin?

Whereas in a typical year the First Four would start Tuesday, with the tourney kicking into full gear on Thursday, this year’s First Four games are all on Thursday, with the first round beginning on Friday. The entire first weekend has essentially been pushed back a day.

Here are the dates for the full tournament:

[MORE: Everything you need to know about the women’s tournament]

When and how can I watch games?

Game times have also been tweaked, but it’s nothing revolutionary. The First Four tips at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday. Games begin at noon on CBS each of the four days (Friday-Monday) after that.

As usual, the four TV channels to find are CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. March Madness Live and the NCAA March Madness Live app are your online streaming homes on desktop and mobile, respectively.

The full day-by-day NCAA tournament TV schedule can be found further down this page, and will be updated once the bracket is revealed.

Where will games happen?

Rather than have teams travel across the country, the NCAA will bring all 68 to the Indianapolis area. They’ll play games at four sites in Indy …

… and two other sites about an hour away:

The First Four will be held at Mackey and Assembly Hall – both of which will also host first-round games, along with the four other venues.

The four Indy sites will host the second round.

Bankers Life and Hinkle will host the Sweet 16.

Everything from the Elite Eight onward will be at Lucas Oil.

Will fans be allowed?

The NCAA announced in February that arenas will open at 25% capacity for the men’s tournament. So yes, thousands of fans will be allowed at March Madness games. They’ll be physically distanced and masked.

The 25% limit – which will include essential staffers and family members of players and coaches – means that some 17,000 fans could be at Lucas Oil for the Final Four. Other arenas could host a few thousand.

The one exception is Assembly Hall. Local health officials and the University of Indiana have said that they will welcome no more than 500 spectators per game, including some “vaccinated medical personnel and first responders.”

What are the NCAA’s March Madness COVID-19 protocols?

Every player, coach, trainer and other member of “Tier 1” – the team’s “inner bubble” – will need seven consecutive negative COVID-19 tests to be cleared for March Madness. They’ll then be tested daily during the tournament.

They’ll stay in area hotels, and eat prearranged meals in their rooms, or in “physically distanced meal rooms with assigned seating,” per the NCAA. They’ll wear masks at all times outside those rooms, except when practicing or competing.

Some might have limited contact with a hodgepodge of “Tier 2” and “Tier 3” personnel outside their team’s travel party, so this will be a “controlled environment,” not a true bubble. They’ll have no contact, however, with family members, friends, fans or media.

What happens if a player tests positive for COVID-19?

If a player tests positive, first of all, he’ll receive a second confirmatory test (and potentially a third) to ensure it isn’t a false positive. (The NCAA has said that “a same-day protocol will be in place for potential false positive tests,” to minimize the chances that a player misses a game due to one.)

If the positive is confirmed, the player will go into isolation, and will likely miss the rest of the tournament – unless his team advances deep into it. He could return 10 days after his initial positive test (if asymptomatic) or 10 days after his last symptoms, per the NCAA’s CDC-based guidelines.

The trickier question is: What happens to the rest of his team?

Could COVID-19 positives force a March Madness shutdown?

If anybody involved in March Madness tests positive, contact tracing will begin immediately. All Tier 1 individuals – players, coaches, etc. – will wear tracking devices at almost all times to aid health authorities with the process.

That process would determine how widespread a disruption might be. If the infected person only has one or two close contacts – in other words, if the team has followed protocols – then those close contacts would be quarantined and unavailable for at least seven days, according to guidelines; but team activities, including games, could continue. If close contact has occurred throughout a team’s travel party, though, then a shutdown might be necessary.

And if a team shuts down, and is unable to compete in a scheduled game, it would forfeit. (There’s very little room for schedule adjustments.) “Its opponent would advance to the next round via the no-contest rule,” the NCAA has said.

The NCAA has not, however, publicly outlined specific criteria for when a shutdown is necessary. Nor has it said who would be responsible for making that decision. When asked about those details, an NCAA spokeswoman referred Yahoo Sports to the organization’s recently published “Championships Safety Overview,” but has not yet directly answered the questions.

It’s clear, though, that an outbreak within one team won’t derail the entire tournament.

Would the NCAA replace teams who have COVID outbreaks?

Again, it’s unclear what exactly would compel a team to withdraw, beyond having fewer than five players available. The NCAA has, however, outlined its team replacement process.

In short, teams can be replaced – either by the next-best team from their conference, or by the next-best team at-large – up until Tuesday, March 16, at 6 p.m. ET. If, for example, Team X gets selected as a No. 3 seed on Sunday, then has to pull out of the tournament on Monday, the first bubble team left out of the field would slot in as the No. 3 seed.

Once the bracket is set, though, there’ll be no re-bracketing. And once the tournament begins, there’ll be no team-replacing. Yahoo Sports’ Sam Cooper has an excellent, succinct breakdown of all the contingencies here.

First round TV schedule

If all goes to plan, the tournament will follow identical schedules on Friday and Saturday. There will be continuous hoops from noon ET all the way through midnight on both days of the first round.

Here are the game times (ET) and TV channels for Friday, March 19, and Saturday, March 20:

Second round TV schedule

Sunday, March 21, and Monday, March 22, follow identical schedules – though with slightly different TV assignments – and are similar to what we used to get for the second around on Saturday and Sunday.

Sweet 16 TV schedule

Sweet 16 games, now on weekends rather than weekday nights, will be spread throughout the day, each with its own time slot.

Saturday, March 27:

Sunday, March 28:

Elite Eight TV schedule

Monday, March 29:

Tuesday, March 30:

Final Four TV schedule

The Final Four will still be on the first Saturday in April, with the title game the following Monday.

Saturday, April 3:

National championship

Monday, April 5:

How can I fill out my bracket?

Well, you can’t quite yet … but you can, and should, get a head start by signing up for Yahoo Tourney Pick ‘Em. It’s free to play, and $50,000 is on the line. Brackets can be filled out shortly after 6 ET on Selection Sunday, March 14.

Anything else I need to know?

Yahoo Sports will have full coverage of the tournament throughout the next month. In the meantime, you can also get up to speed on the women’s tourney, which will be easier to watch and follow this year than ever before.