Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
You don’t have to be a diehard college basketball fan to appreciate March Madness, but the fact that the championship game usually doesn’t wrap up until it’s almost midnight on the East Coast has long been a point of contention. Thankfully, the NCAA has opted to address that issue ahead of the title showdown we’ll be treated to in a few months.
Nearly half of the people who live in the United States reside in the Eastern Time Zone, which puts them three hours ahead of the Western denizens who comprise around 16% of the population (Central clocks in at approximately 29%, while Moutain brings up the rear with close to 7%).
As a result, national broadcasts tend to cater to the Americans who are responsible for the bulk of the viewership, but things get a little bit trickier when it comes to scheduling live sporting events that will attract a ton of attention around the country.
That’s especially true when those games fall on a weekday, as the powers that be have to account for the fact that most people in California are wrapping up work by the time plenty of people on the East Coast are starting to wind down a bit with the evening firmly underway.
The College Football Playoff National Championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame didn’t begin until around 7:45 ET on a Monday (it wrapped up around 11 P.M.), but that’s pretty early compared to the start time college basketball fans have been forced to endure for the March Madness championship games.
Last year, the NCAA Tournament final between UConn and Purdue tipped off a 9:20 ET, which has been the official start since the 2017 season (it’s been between 9:10 and 9:23 for the bulk of the past couple of decades, and you need to go back all the way to 2002 to find a game that began at exactly 9 P.M.)
The Huskies didn’t officially secure the title until around 11:40 that night, and it’s hard to blame people who had to wake up for work the next morning for being less than thrilled with that arrangement.
Thankfully, the NCAA has decided to switch things up this year, as the governing body recently revealed the championship showdown that will transpire at The Alamodome on April 7, 2025 will get underway at 8:50 P.M. on the East Coast, which means it will theoretically wrap up closer to 11.
🚨 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
As far as I can tell, that’s the earliest the national championship has started in at least 25 years; it seems like a welcome change, but we’ll have to see how the ratings end up panning out before we learn if it’s going to be a permanent one.