The second round of the NCAA Tournament kicks off on Saturday, March 21 as all four double-digit seeds remaining in the tournament take the court.
While fans will be focused on today’s games, they’re already looking forward to Sunday’s game as well. Late Friday night the schedule for Sunday’s games were announced and the NCAA quickly found itself in hot water with fans after releasing the slate of games.
The NCAA took heat for scheduling a game on the East Coast that is expected to start at 9:45 p.m. ET at the earliest, and could be moved back if the game starting at 7:10 p.m. ET goes over its time slot.
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Fans rushed to social media to suggest the scheduling needs to be amended heading into next year’s tournament.
“The schedule makers/TV executives for the #NCAATournament need to be canned. Texas Tech/Alabama at 9:45PM Eastern on a Sunday Night in Tampa? UCLA/Connecticut at 8:45PM Eastern on a Sunday Night in Philadelphia?” one account suggested.
“Florida playing at 7:10PM Why Tampa has to host a game starting around 10PM is ridiculous,” added another before another said, “Nothing like making your Tampa teams sit around all [expletive] day and tip off at bedtime. Ridiculous scheduling.”
The Saturday slate of games doesn’t suffer from the same problem as the latest start (in local time) is set for No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 11 VCU which tips off at 7:50 p.m. ET in South Carolina.
No. 4 Nebraska vs. No. 5 Vanderbilt will be played at 7:45 p.m. CT (8:45 p.m. ET) while the latest game of the night in Eastern Time is No. 4 Arkansas vs. No. 12 High Point, which tips off at 9:45 p.m. ET, but 6:45 p.m. local time in Portland, OR.
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