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The road to San Antonio began a long time ago, but the actual path for all 68 NCAA tournament teams will become clear as the bracket is revealed on Selection Sunday.
The 2018 selection show starts at 6 p.m. ET, but unlike in years past, it will be televised on TBS. Fortunately, if you don’t have cable or can’t get a TV, you can still easily watch Selection Sunday live on your computer, phone or streaming device by signing up for one of the following cable-free, live-TV services:
Hulu With Live TV: In addition to their extensive Netflix-like streaming library, Hulu now also offers a bundle of live channels, including TBS. You can sign up for “Hulu with Live TV” right here, and you can then watch a live stream of Selection Sunday on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Hulu app.
Sling TV: TBS is included in both the “Sling Orange” and “Sling Blue” channel packages. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial of either, and you can then watch Selection Sunday live on your computer via the Sling TV website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Sling TV app.
DirecTV Now: TBS is included in all of DirecTV Now’s four main channel packages. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial no matter what package you choose, plus you can get a free Amazon Fire TV if you prepay two months. Once signed up, you can watch Selection Sunday live on your computer via the DirecTV Now website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the DirecTV Now app.
Note: You can also watch Selection Sunday on your computer via the March Madness Live website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the March Madness Live app. To watch this stream, you’ll have a free preview before needing to sign in to a TV provider to keep watching, but you can do this by signing in with your Hulu credentials.
Preview
There are a handful of interesting bubble teams that will be sweating out the bracket reveal this year.
Perhaps the most compelling is Oklahoma. For the first couple months of the season, it looked like the Sooners were headed for a high seed. Freshman Trae Young was lighting the college basketball world on fire, and Lon Kruger’s squad started the year 14-2 with wins over Oregon, USC, Wichita State, TCU (twice), Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. But then the collapse came, as the Sooners lost 9 of their next 13 to finish ninth in the Big 12, then lost to Oklahoma State in the first round of the conference tourney to further complicate things.
In most cases, the amount of quality wins they’ve assembled (six Quadrant 1, three Quadrant 2) would be enough, but how much will the committee punish them for a brutal final two months.
Arizona State is a near identical case study. The Sun Devils started the season 12-0 and picked up victories over two potential No. 1 seeds (Xavier, Kansas), but then they went just 8-10 in Pac-12 play and began their conference tournament with a loss to Colorado.
For what it’s worth, Bracket Matrix, which compiles projected brackets from a bevy of sources, has both OU and ASU in the field, but neither has looked much like a tournament team lately, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
Other teams to watch include St. Mary’s (28 wins and 29th in Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, but their quality wins including one over Gonzaga and not much else), Penn State (how much will three wins against Ohio State get them?), Syracuse (couldn’t take advantage of five games against Virginia, UNC and Duke, but they have three Quadrant 1 wins and grade out decently in most of the rankings) and Notre Dame (does the committee judge them on their overall resume, which is somewhat shaky, or who they are with Bonzie Colson, who missed 15 games in which the team went 6-9?).
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are a seemingly endless amount of questions about this year’s Field of 68, but those will all finally be answered on Sunday night.