March Madness Locations 2025

Game winners at the buzzer, bracket-busting upsets, cutting down the nets — those are the charms of the NCAA basketball tournament that come to mind first. However, one that flies under the radar, but rightfully belongs, is March Madness locations for 2025.

Typically, 14 different cities/arenas play host to tournament games in a given year. Then the following year, a mostly new crop of locations get the next round of games. This cycle continues for another few years. But all in all, it’s a constantly-revolving door of sites. The NCAA hand-picks these hosts year in, year out. Not unlike the NFL Super Bowl or FIFA World Cup, cities must submit bids to house a crop of games. So that should tell you there’s real value in being the home of the March Madness competition.

March Madness 2025 is shaping up to be an electrifying spectacle, with top-notch NCAAB teams like Duke, Gonzaga, Purdue, UConn, and Baylor battling it out for the coveted national champion title. Excitement is in the air as basketball enthusiasts eagerly follow the thrilling matchups, from North Carolina to Arizona, showcasing the skills of standout players from Texas to UCLA. Teams like Villanova, Virginia, and Florida are determined to make their mark after an intense regular season, while underdog stories emerge from the likes of Iowa State, Marquette, and Mississippi.

As the tournament unfolds, fans are placing their bets on online sportsbooks, exploring enticing promos and parlay options, with an eye on potential upsets and the ever-present unpredictability of March Madness. Whether it’s the nail-biting action in Indiana or the buzzer-beaters in New York, this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament promises to deliver unforgettable moments, further fueling the passion for American basketball at both the collegiate and professional levels, transcending the realms of NBA and NFL excitement.

Bettors need to take notice of March Madness locations for 2025, as well. There are some underlying reasons why the host matters when picking between March Madness odds. We’ll cover that, plus the 2025 sites, over the course of this guide!

The First Four Play-In Round

The NCAA Tournament expanded to 68 teams from 65 in 2011 and with that introduced the “First Four” round. It pits the four lowest-seeded automatic bids (based on winning their conference championship) against the four lowest-seeded at-large bids (decided by the NCAA selection committee). The four games are always 16-seed vs. 16 and 12-seed vs 12 matchups — two games apiece for both. 

This round is the rare exception where the site never changes. Since its inception, Dayton, Ohio has played hosts to every First Four contest inside the University of Dayton Arena.

In 2025, the First Four will take place on March 18 and 19. The start date is, per usual, two days after Selection Sunday on March 16.

The First And Second Round

The madness ensues on March 21 when the 2025 opening round begins. That day, plus the following one, there are NCAA Tournament matchups from morning to night — 32 in total. Just don’t blink because you might miss something. 

The advancing teams get all of one rest day before returning to the same arena later in the weekend for the second-round matchup. This round is slotted to happen on March 23 and 24 for the 2024 competition.

The venues listed correspond to the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. For the 2025 tournament, the hosting venues are as follows:

First Four:

• UD Arena, Dayton, Ohio

First and Second Rounds:

• Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky
• Amica Mutual Pavilion, Providence, Rhode Island
• Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle, Washington
• Intrust Bank Arena, Wichita, Kansas
• Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland, Ohio
• Ball Arena, Denver, Colorado
• Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• PNC Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina

Regionals:

• East Regional: Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey
• West Regional: Chase Center, San Francisco, California
• South Regional: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, Georgia
• Midwest Regional: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana

Final Four:

• Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas

Regional Semi-Finals (Sweet Sixteen) & Finals (Elite Eight)

Annually, March Madness is broken up into four regions — East, Midwest, South, and West. Each is seeded with schools one through 16 from the get-go. Those that survive the opening two rounds earn bids to the regional rounds.

This is really where the stakes start getting higher — not only in the chase for a national title, but the arena itself, too. By and large, you’ll see host venues for this round that also have a regular NBA resident during the playing season. But for this one weekend in March, NCAA takes the center stage.

The Final Four

Welp, it doesn’t get much bigger than this. As the name implies, this round pits the “final four” teams that all won their respective regions against one another. It’s three games to decide the national championship. The March Madness Final Four odds are some of the best, as these are the last few teams to make it to the Championship title and are often some of the most supported teams that season.

Given the grand moment, these games are actually moved out of normal basketball arenas and into giant football stadiums. Suddenly, the capacity crowd size swells from 20,000 or so people to upwards of 60,000 a game. And yes, that affects the crowd noise level immensely.

Unlike the previous rounds, the Final Four hosts are set well in advance. Here’s where the national title will be decided in the next year:

• Final Four 2025 (national semifinals & national championship): April 5th- April 7th
• State Farm Stadium, Glendale

March Madness 2025 Teams

The 68 teams selected to compete in the 2025 NCAA March Madness tournament will be publicly announced on Selection Sunday, March 16, 2025. Once the selection committee finalizes the full list of automatic qualifiers and at-large bids, the tournament brackets will be revealed. We’ll post the official list as soon as it’s released, right on this page.