Unless you live on the west coast, late start times for premier sporting events can be a real pain in the backside. And none has been historically more painful than the NCAA Tournament championship game.
For years the culmination of March Madness has had a ludicrous Monday start time at 9:20 PM ET to maximize primetime eyeballs across the country. But that has often meant games going until almost midnight on the east coast before all is said and done and One Shining Moment has finished playing.
Thankfully, the NCAA of all organizations is finally showing some common sense. On Tuesday, the official NCAA March Madness account shared with social media that the 2025 National Championship game will now tip off at 8:50 p.m. ET, 30 minutes earlier than its typical 9:20 p.m. ET start time.
🚨 National Championship tip-off time!
The 2025 National Championship will tip off at 8:50pm ET – 30 minutes earlier than the typical start time. pic.twitter.com/h39KTt16Q0
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) January 28, 2025
While still ridiculously late, at least it’s better than the alternative.
Just last week, the nation was up in arms about the College Football Playoff National Championship Game being played on a Monday night. While that is at least somewhat understandable in the middle of the NFL Playoffs, it still creates a strain for fans who want to stay up and watch the big game late on a work night.
While March Madness has no football competition to speak of in the first week of April, the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments take up a Friday-Sunday and Saturday-Monday rotation when it comes to their Final Four contests taking place. Could there be something worked out where we could just do a festival of basketball weekend where all games are played on Saturday and Sunday? Could the men’s and women’s tourneys be staggered in some way so that one takes place a week before or after the other to maximize viewership and accessibility? Maybe… maybe not.
For now, we’ll just have to settle with grumpy east coast sports fans being a little slightly less grumpy.
About Matt Yoder