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The 2009 NCAA March Madness schedule is finally ready to get started today. After weeks of bracketology, March Madness 2009 is here at last. Office workers are now rearranging their schedule so they can catch as many NCAA Tournament games as possible, and root for their office champions. Today, the first portion of the 2009 March Madness schedule begins with the traditional 16 first round Thursday games.
There are three 2009 NCAA Tournament games premiering just after noon today, to start March Madness. The very first NCAA Tournament game starts at 12:20, in the South Region. Eight seeded LSU, the SEC regular season champions, faces a traditional NCAA Tournament spoiler, the ninth seeded Butler Bulldogs.
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Five minutes later at 12:25, the Memphis Tigers begin their run through March Madness against the West's 15'th seed, Cal State Northridge. At 12:30, the West's 8-9 game in Philadelphia has BYU facing Texas A&M for the second year in a row at March Madness.
Four games are on the 2009 March Madness schedule sometime between 2:30 and 3, depending on when the first games end. Two of these games feature top seeds, with North Carolina taking on Radford in the South, and Connecticut going up against Chattanooga in the West region. The two other games in this time slot are in the West region, with Purdue vs. Northern Iowa, and Cal clashing with Maryland.
Afterward, the March Madness schedule has just one game at 5 p.m. The fourth seed Washington Huskies in the West region, take on surprise SEC tournament champ Mississippi State. After that, 2009 March Madness goes into prime time.
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At 7:10, Clemson faces Michigan in the Southern region, while Texas takes on Minnesota in the East. At 7:20, Villanova plays in front of a de facto home crowd in Philadelphia, against American University. At 7:25, Gonzaga takes on Akron.
The final round of March Madness games on day 1 takes place sometime after 9:40. Duke will headline this last grouping, facing NCAA tournament newcomer Binghamton. Oklahoma also begins their tournament run against Morgan State. Finally, UCLA faces VCU, and Illinois up with last year's surprise Sweet 16 player, Western Kentucky.
Among these first batch of games on the March Madness schedule, there are several powerful teams expected to make a run to April and the Final Four. For those in the office pool, the games projected as possible upset picks largely take place tomorrow, unless teams like Northern Iowa, Mississippi State, VCU, or some really shocking team out of nowhere pulls some miracles today.
The 2009 NCAA Tournament is once again, exclusively on CBS. The network will go back and forth between each of the games, depending on where a viewer is watching from. But the CBS website March Madness On Demand allows online viewers to watch each game from a live feed.
